University and new rail test centre join forces

THE University of Birmingham’s Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) and the Global Centre for Rail Excellence (GCRE) have signed an agreement to work together on new rail projects when the Welsh test centre opens in 2024.

The agreement was announced by BCRRE director Professor Clive Roberts and GCRE boss Simon Jones at InnoTrans 2022 in Berlin.

The GCRE is being built in Neath Port Talbot on the site of the former Nant Helen opencast site and Onllwyn Washery. It is being designed to offer a ‘one stop shop’ for railway innovation, including research and development, testing and verification, and applied technology on mainline passenger and freight systems.

There will also be two 25KV electrified test loops at the head of the Dulais and Tawe valleys, one being a 4¼-mile (6.9km) 180kph line and the other a 2½mile (4km) 60kph line.

Other facilities will include a dual-platform test environment, rolling stock storage and maintenance facilities, operations and control offices, staff accommodation, shunting staff facilities and connections to the nearby main line.

BCRRE claims to be the largest specialist railway research, education and innovation centre in Europe with more than 170 researchers and professional services staff, but will work on this project with Welsh universities such as Cardiff and Swansea.