INNOVATION & SUPPLY CHAIN
to start on adapting the Class 379 to run on battery power on a section of the Anglia route, with its pantograph down (but ready to rise in the event of a problem).
Talking to RTM in mid-June, Clarke said: “Currently the IPEMU is at Bombardier where a train is being converted. Later this year we will demonstrate the unit.
“It is a classic example: the research suggests it will work, the technology exists in other industries, but nobody in the rail industry is going to take the risk of going out and buying one until they have actually seen one in action.
“So we are going to allow them to see one and ride on one, so we can build the confi dence and let them know it works.”
In his speech at Rail Live, Clarke called this problem the “valley of death”. He said: “The classic scenario is one where no self-respecting director wants any novelty on his project, and all the project directors think the same – so guess what? No novelty.
“The worst place to do any sort of dramatic innovation is on a live project,” he said, so FutureRailway is all about testing and proving an innovation in a realistic way, ready for it to be used in a live environment once it is no longer seen as novel or risky.
By taking this approach, FutureRailway is also fulfi lling another of its main aims: de-risking business solutions and technologies.
“We want to bring together people who don’t usually work together and bring forward those cross system challenges, we want to build skills and capabilities so that innovation becomes part of the day job for everybody, we also want to work with the government and try to remove the barriers to innovation,” said Clarke. “The reason we want to do all of this is because we want to build a better railway and a better supply chain for the UK economy – that is the fundamental objective.”
FutureRailway and partners also subsidise testing on sites like Long Marston to ensure innovative ideas can be tested properly.
Looking ahead
Going forward, the FutureRailway programme team is going to look at each of the chapters of the RTS, pick out the biggest challenges and will design its
competitions to move the RTS forward.
Clarke added: “If you want to fully know what FutureRailway will be doing over the next fi ve years look at the RTS because, for the most part, it is in there.”
Jane Simpson added: “FutureRailway is a vehicle for the whole of the rail industry to come together to create a cheaper, greater capacity, lower carbon railway offering a better customer experience. It falls under the governance of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) through the RDG Technology and Operations sub-group and with the Technical Strategy Leadership Group (TSLG) providing oversight. Network Rail is heavily engaged in both supporting and steering the activities of FutureRailway.”
Clarke is also keen that the industry works together on a ‘rail industrial strategy’ to match the automotive industry’s version,
which
used £500m from business, match-funded by £500m from the government, to boost the overall fortunes of the industry.
Clarke said he’d like to see that in place by this time next year, and said the Rail Supply Group, chaired by Alstom’s Terence Watson with input from BIS as well as the DfT, was a great start.
David Clarke
www.futurerailway.org FOR MORE INFORMATION
rail technology magazine Jun/Jul 14 | 39
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