23 October 2012
Research funding awarded to look at reducing whole-life train costs
Three proposals from leading UK universities to look at ways of designing out whole-life
cost in rolling stock have been approved by the Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA)
and a share of £100k funding awarded by RSSB. A fourth proposal from the University
of Huddersfield has won funding for an ‘Industrial CASE’ studentship co-funded by
EPSRC and RSSB.
It is widely acknowledged that there is an opportunity to tackle the costs of trains in
terms of how they are actually designed to perform. But with so many competing
behaviours, incentives and priorities, from train owners, manufacturers, operators, to
passengers, infrastructure manager and government, optimising these many viewpoints
is not a simple task.
Train operators see this as an example of how they can influence reductions in the
overall cost of the railway while delivering more, as recognised both by the McNulty
report and the rail industry itself.
The challenge was introduced to participants at an RRUKA-organised ‘Half Cost Train’
workshop back in July at City University London, attracting senior industry players, in
partnership with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC). How could
research change industry understanding of engineering, economic and policy decisions
to drastically cut costs and increase the sustainability of the railway?
Louise Shaw, Professional Head of Engineering at ATOC explained: ‘I asked RRUKA to
hold this event because train operators work in a competitive market, where
expectations are always developing, and the demands placed upon the train fleet are
increasing. We recognised the need to become more efficient and meet the changing
requirements of our customers; trains are a major part of this. The day allowed us to
see if we could challenge the way things are normally done and discuss more widely
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than we are normally able to. There were some interesting concepts proposed by the
academics and I am looking forward to seeing how the projects progress.’
The event led to university-led consortia bidding for research funding from RSSB to look
at some of the issues in more depth. Four bids have now been approved:
•
Economic Incentives for Innovation: a comparative study of the rail and
aviation industries- University of Leeds, Loughborough University and
Imperial College London
•
Design for Control of Railway Vehicles – University of Salford and
Loughborough University
•
Commonality and Standardisation of Processes for Cost-Effective Rolling
Stock – Newcastle University, Imperial College London, LUL, TATA Steel,
Scotrail (First Group) and Alstom
•
Enabling the development of lightweight railway bogies through the use of
novel technologies to control fatigue life – University of Huddersfield
(Industrial CASE studentship with co-funding from RSSB and EPSRC)
Colin Dennis, Director of Policy Research and Risk at RSSB said, ‘RRUKA works to
bring together the rail industry and the universities to facilitate research that can make a
real difference to the industry. The half cost train event was very successful and RSSB
is pleased to be able to provide seed-corn funding for some fundamental research
addressing the issue of cost, which is of vital importance to so many parts of the
industry and passengers.’
One of the key aims of RRUKA is to remove the barriers between academia and the
railway industry through better focusing research effort towards solutions for real-world
problems and also through a better understanding within industry of what university
research can offer and how it can be supported. RRUKA is run with oversight from an
executive committee consisting of elected university representatives, and the two
funders, RSSB and Network Rail.
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RRUKA is running its Annual Conference on 7 November 2012 at The Royal Society
with several high profile guest speakers including Professor Richard Parry Jones CBE:
Chairman, Network Rail. For more information, the programme and to register, go to
www.rruka.org.uk
-EndsFor further information, about RRUKA’s and RSSB’s role, please contact the RSSB
press office, on 020 3142 5333 /5332 / 5331 or email pressoffice@rssb.co.uk or visit the
website www.rssb.co.uk
For further information about ATOC’s role, please contact the ATOC press office,
telephone 020 7841 8069 / 8065 / 8064 or go to www.atoc.org/media-centre
Notes to editors:
1. Rail Research UK Association hosted this event at the request of ATOC who wanted to take a
‘back-to-basics’ look at train specification and design. The workshop attracted participants from
over 16 different UK universities and 13 industry organisations. This included presentations from
Louise Shaw (Head of Engineering and Projects – ATOC), David Clarke (Deputy Director: Rail
Technical – DfT), Josef Doppelbauer (Chief Technical Officer – Bombardier Transportation,
Germany), Nick Hortin (New Trains Director – First Group), Nick Swift (Asset Manager –
Eversholt Rail Group) and Simon Weeks (Head of Aerospace Research & Technology – RollsRoyce)
2. Presentations from the workshop, along with a summary of discussion topics from the breakout
sessions and links to the successful project abstracts, can be found at
http://spark.rssb.co.uk/Lists/Records/DispForm.aspx?ID=2239
3. After the event, participants had the opportunity to propose feasibility studies and bid for a share
of £100k funding being provided by RSSB to help address these issues and funding was also
available for a Industrial CASE studentship co-funded by EPSRC and RSSB. RRUKA is pleased
to announce the award of the successful proposals as detailed in the press release.
4. Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA) is a partnership between Britain’s rail industry and UK
universities. It was set up in 2010 to be an effective bridge between industry and universities. It is
funded by RSSB and Network Rail. For more information see www.rruka.org.uk
5. ATOC was set up after privatisation in 1993 and brings together all train companies to preserve
and enhance the benefits for passengers of Britain’s national rail network. Additionally, the
Engineering Scheme has Freightliner, Irish Rail and Northern Ireland Railways as members. For
more information see www.atoc.org
6. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the main UK government
agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, investing
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more than £850 million a year in a broad range of subjects – from mathematics to materials
science, and from information technology to structural engineering. Their mechanism, Industrial
CASE provides funding for PhD studentships where businesses take the lead in arranging
projects with an academic partner of their choice. Funding is provided by EPSRC and
supplemented by the business (in this case, RSSB)
7. RSSB builds industry-wide consensus and facilitates the resolution of difficult cross-industry
issues. It provides knowledge, analysis, a substantial level of technical expertise and powerful
information and risk management tools. This delivers a unique mix to the industry across a whole
range of subject areas – with the aim of:
- Driving out unnecessary cost
- Improving business performance
- Where reasonably practicable, continuously improving the level of safety in the rail
industry
8. RSSB manages the rail industry’s research and development (R&D) programme, which covers
‘systems’ issues across the railway, engineering interfaces within the railway, and interfaces with
other parts of the community and society. It’s also instrumental in supporting the development of
a future vision for the railways – including its technical strategy and sustainable development and assessing how that vision can best be delivered. A major benefit for industry is that the
programme represents an efficient and cost-effective means for the industry to research, develop
and problem-solve whilst retaining ownership and direction of the products through RSSB.
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