Innovation Central

PAUL STEPHEN reports on how the ground-breaking new UKRRIN partnership between industry and universities will provide a step-change in rail research and development, while also increasing the UK’s international standing as a world leader in rail

The UK has a proud history of rail innovation. Beginning with the opening of a passenger railway between Manchester and Liverpool in 1830, the torch for that early pioneering spirit was subsequently carried by a pantheon of great Victorian and Edwardian engineers, including the likes of Brunel and Stephenson.

More recently, development activities were carried out by British Rail’s Research Division in Derby, which provided pioneering research and development for British Railways.

Providing consultancy services to railways across the world, it became famous in particular for its theoretical and practical advancements in train tilting technology and Solid State Interlocking (SSI) signalling systems, which would go on to be adopted (or emulated) by manufacturers and railway operators across the globe.

Since the privatisation of the railways in the 1990s, that innovation hasn’t gone away with much of the space vacated by BR filled by a resurgence in university-based research. UKRRIN was launched in Parliament on February 20 by Rail Minister Jo Johnson (centre). Representing the Centres of Excellence are (L-R) Professor Simon Iwnicki (University of Huddersfield), Jo Binstead (Siemens and UKRRIN Steering Group Chairman), Professor Clive Roberts (University of Birmingham) and Professor William Powrie (University of Southampton).

Attempts to thread together the work of these institutions began in 2003 following the creation of Rail Research UK (RRUK), which comprised specific research groups from a limited number of universities.

That partnership was then expanded in 2010 when RRUK became the Rail Research UK Association (RRUKA) and opened up to all universities, with its central functions funded by RSSB (Rail Standards and Safety Board).

It purpose was simple: to provide a bridge between the rail supply chain, infrastructure managers, train operators, manufacturers and others (all of whom could fund research and bring its outputs to market) and those within academia who conduct research.

RRUKA also had a useful role as a forum for knowledge transfer and in ‘mapping’ expertise by collating information about ongoing and planned research projects to ensure that they were not needlessly duplicated.

Having been established as a successful model to bring innovations to market more quickly, this type of close collaboration has now been taken a step further by the UK Rail Research & Innovation Network (UKRRIN), which was launched in Westminster on February 20.

Building on the work of RRUKA, UKRRIN links 16 companies from the rail sector with eight leading UK universities.

Those universities have joined forces and combined their resources to form three Centres of Excellence in Digital Systems (University of Birmingham), Rolling Stock (University of Huddersfield,