TRANSPORT INDUSTRY: ROUND UP


INNOVATION KEEPS THE RAILWAYS CLEAN


W


ith high profile developments in automotive technology constantly making the headlines in both the


popular as well as technical press, breakthroughs beingmade in other sectors of transport could easily be overlooked, despite progress being significant in the railway industry. Working to the already well-established


30-year Rail Technical Strategy, the industry ismaking headway in carbon reduction, capacity improvement and cost- saving initiatives to create a network that is considered as both an environmentally and financially viable alternative to road transport. Simon Iwnicki, Professor of Railway


Engineering at theUniversity of Huddersfield, says that railways have long been regarded as being friendlier to the environment than road transport but recent automotive powertrain developmentsmean that roads are catching up. To stay ahead of the game, the railway industry is capitalising on its experience of high- voltage electrification as well as implementing dual power systems and even hydrogen fuel cells. Currently being researched by the


automotive industry for supplying the electricity network with energy fromcars using V2G (vehicle to grid) technology, the railway industry has been doing this for decades, with locomotives using kinetic energy to supply the overhead lines during braking to “top up” the system.


 Professor Iwnicki heads the University of Huddersfield’s Institute of Railway Research, below; Ford Trials its intersection collision warning technology at UK Autodrive, bottom


In July, theUniversity ofHuddersfield’s


Institute of Railway Research was awarded £30million to focus on innovations for improving the energy efficiency and life expectancy of rolling stock. The award is fromtheUK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN), in which the university is a partner. According to Iwnicki, where a route


comprises sections of electrified and non- electrified track, one option is to use bi- mode trains, which can operate using overhead power lines or by diesel power as appropriate. “The latest trains fromHitachi which are being used on the First Great Western routes are bi-mode vehicles,” he says Future-proof technology is important for


railways as the vehicles havemuch longer life expectancies than those on the roads. “Some locomotives on the network have


been around for 30 years ormore, which is good in one sense but not so good when you consider that the engine technology can be three decades out of date,” explains Iwnicki.


CONNECTED VEHICLES HELP EMERGENCY SERVICES


progress of an emergency vehicle if you do not quickly and safelymove out of the way. Now Ford has developed technology that


T


sends a signal fromthe ambulance, fire engine or police car directly to nearby drivers, so that they will know exactly where the siren is coming from, and how far away it is. “Time is precious for emergency services


and this technology could help to shave valuable seconds off their journeys by enabling drivers to avoid being an obstruction,” says Christian Ress, supervisor, AutomatedDriving Europe, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. Ford is also trialling technology that can


alert drivers to potential accidents when they are approaching a crossroads.With intersection collision warning, the car broadcasts its location to nearby vehicles which – if equipped with the same technology – then calculate the risk of a crash. If the risk is high, then a warning tells both drivers to slow down or stop. For example, it could alert drivers when a car approaching fromanother direction has ignored a red traffic light. EE


42 /// Environmental Engineering /// December 2017


rying to locate the source of a siren when you are behind the wheel can be stressful.Worse, it can delay the


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