A Railway Innovation Strategy April 2022
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report looks to accelerate the creation of the low-carbon, cost efficient, reliable, and passenger-centric railway by examining the state of the rail research, development and innovation ecosystem and providing six key asks of government, and five recommendations to ensure GBR is an innovation-friendly environment.
As a result, we are confident in making six simple, practical, and evidenced key asks to ensure the future success of railway innovation and, by extension, secure a transport system fit for those who rely upon it. We then build on this to propose some recommendations for creating an innovation-friendly environment within the new Great British Railways structure, unleashing the true power of collaboration with the private sector. These recommendations go some way to fulfilling those key asks.
Research, development, and innovation are all crucial to the railway. However, this report identifies that it is through innovation, rather than research and development alone, that true positive change is achieved, and business benefits accrue. Innovation is research and development ‘in action’. Value for money, customer satisfaction and exports can be directly influenced by an innovation-friendly environment.
We are positive about the Great British Railways era, and rail’s place in our society and economy but we observe that successfully creating an innovation-friendly environment will require significant commitment from everyone in our industry.
Innovation is highlighted as a flagship Government priority, both within and outside the railway industry. However, despite small bubbles of best practice, we evidence railway innovation to be under-funded when compared to formal targets published by the Government in its recent Innovation Strategy, and under-supported, when compared to best practice. Worse, the path to adoption into business-as-usual for even trivial change is fraught with roadblocks. Radical innovation - which we define later - is almost entirely prevented, yet this is where some of the greatest benefits lie. Our inability to create an innovation-friendly environment has the knock-on effect of stifling private investment and initiative, preventing us recruiting the best talent. Without change, this will negatively impact our industry’s ability to create a railway service fit for future generations. RIA has studied best-practice from other sectors, and gathered evidence from individuals and organisations from across, and outside, our industry. We have examined, and present here, a series of case studies which highlight both the benefits of successful innovation, and the ways in which current practice has prevented adoption of technologies which could have made a real difference to operators, maintainers, and passengers. We have undertaken surveys to identify the blockers to innovation and we investigate how certain blockers could be removed to realise benefits sooner, to decarbonise faster, to leverage the power and investment of the private sector, and to build exports, skills, and capabilities - including through enabling radical change.
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