Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges Relating to SBRI rail demonstrations: first of a kind 2021 11 February 2021 David Rowe Head of Rail Technology – Network Rail
Primary contact: Mark.Gaddes@NetworkRail.co.uk
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Low Emissions We consume around 80 Gigawatt hours per year for points heating across the network. Clearly these are critical items for running a safe railway in cold conditions but we need to reduce our energy consumption and associated carbon emissions from the points heating.
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LE1: Provide solutions for sustainable points heating.
We consume around 25 Gigawatt hours per year for Conductor Rail heating. We can’t remove the function but need to find a low emission solution. •
LE2: Provide solutions for sustainable Conductor Rail heating.
With lockdown restrictions many employees are now working from home. Post lockdown many may continue to work from home on a regular basis. That involves a shift in energy consumption and associated carbon emissions away from NR’s property portfolio to individual’s homes. •
LE3: Provide solutions that can help monitor and reduce the impact of employees continuing to work from home post lockdown and or provide renewable energy solutions.
The car is an essential mode of transport for many passengers to get to a station. From 2030 sales of petrol and diesel only cars will be banned in the UK with a significant shift to electric cars starting now. •
LE4: Provide off grid solutions to provide recharging capability for electric cars at station car parks.
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Low Emissions Air pollution in and around stations can be poor. •
LE5: Provide a solution that can capture poor air quality in and around stations and turn the captured pollutants into a useable resource.
Understanding whole life carbon of projects and activities is paramount to reaching net zero. However, accurately measuring carbon emissions is very challenging, particularly at project sites. •
LE6: Provide a solution that can accurately measure carbon remotely at project sites.
As part of our decarbonisation strategy we need to reduce our energy consumption across our property portfolio. •
LE7: Provide solutions that optimise building management control systems (heating, cooling and lighting) in occupied spaces (offices and depots etc.)
As part of our decarbonisation strategy we need to reduce our energy consumption across our nontraction operations. •
LE8: Provide solutions that maximise usage of forced-air cooling instead of air conditioning in IT and signalling equipment
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Low Emissions Challenges calling for digital solutions: Rail travel is the most energy efficient form of transport. The rail industry should seek to move the movement of people and goods away from road and air travel. •
LE9: Produce a digital solution that aims to increase the attraction of rail to individuals and businesses.
Air quality in stations has shown to be poor. •
LE10: Produce a digital solution that would improve management of air quality at stations, offices or lineside.
Network Rail and its supply chain’s maintenance, construction and ops equipment often use nonrenewable energy. • LE11: Produce a digital solution that would better the sustainability of the railway’s vehicles, trains and machinery. Rail freight often relies on non-electrified routes and therefore uses diesel locomotive. • LE12: Produce a digital solution to better the sustainability of rail freight.
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Low Emissions Network Rail manages numerous old and listed buildings and stations. These buildings are often not efficiently heated or powered. •
LE13: Produce a digital solution to increase building and station efficiency and maintain or better passenger experience.
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LE14: Identify a digital solution to management, betterment or increase in renewable energy use on the railway.
Materials are often selected based on cost and availability. •
LE15: Produce a digital solution to improve the sustainability of railway’s management of material sourcing and its delivery.
The rail industry is dependent on carbon intensive materials. •
LE16: Produce a digital solution to improve the sustainability of railway’s designs, management and use of carbon intensive materials.
LE17: Identify a digital solution to improve the national rail infrastructure’s ability to support more sustainable rolling stock. LE18: Identify digital solutions to improve the viability of renewable rolling stock i.e. like hydrogen and battery power for trains
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Easy to use for all With many rail passengers having formed new habits with their prolonged experience of working from home and/or not being allowed to travel, rail will need to attract both new and traditional users to rail with changes to its core product (as part of a mix of other incentives). These changes may or may not have been anticipated (or deemed significant) in pre-COVID market research. Or they may be known pain points, but their significance and importance may have changed significantly. PX1: Provide product enhancements across the passenger journey stages (planning a journey, buying a ticket, arriving at the station, on board and post journey) that would solve passenger’s emerging post COVID needs and form part of a reset of expectations of the value and role of rail to individual customers. (consider increased flexibility/value, productivity while travelling, confidence in the safety of the environment and availability of space, knowledge of new journey patterns and associated crowding implications etc.)
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Easy to use for all A significant number of improvements have been made to both Stations and Trains, to the point passengers can travel relatively independently around some of the busiest parts of our network. However a significant number of stations and trains remain difficult to access without some form of intervention and rail continues to present disabled passengers with significant barriers to travel. To enable the industry to fulfil its ambition and increase significantly, the number of journeys which passengers can make independently we would like innovations which provide: •
PX2a: Industry with innovative ways to help identify the next set of most impactful interventions they can make, which will maximise the level of additional access, in the most targeted, relevant and, prioritised way and allow the maximum number of passengers to navigate the network independently
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PX2b: Passengers with better tools which support their understanding of the current level of accessibility depending on the specific kind of disability they have and automatically suggest the best plan for their journey including any assistance or intervention that requires. This could involve quietest times to travel depending on knowledge of typical station and train crowding for passengers
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Network Rail Challenges – Easy to use for all To become a truly passenger, customer centric industry we need to ensure we are measuring those things most important to our passengers and customers, and be able to assess our own performance more effectively through their lens. For example, we traditionally measure the on time percentage of our trains, but don’t necessarily today translate that effectively into the number of passengers who arrive on time. We would therefore welcome: •
PX3: Innovation that supports the provision of more passenger-centric measures of rail performance and ways in which that might be used to influence and improve our decision making.
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Request for support Form: • Proposed idea description: What does the project deliver and how? Max 5 lines / sentences • Project Benefits: What benefits will the project deliver (consider the Network rail 4Cs[Carbon, Cost, Capacity, Customer], safety, reliability)
• Benefits to “Putting Passengers First” programme and front-line staff: How will the project contribute to the Putting Passengers First” programme (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/puttingpassengers-first/) and benefit our front line staff • Objectives and deliverables outputs: (software model, requirements specification, POC etc.) • Dependencies: What are the requirements from Network Rail during the project to enable you to demonstrate your idea (data, information, access to infrastructure, staff time etc.)?
• Request form from Mark.Gaddes@NetworkRail.co.uk
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Request for support / Time line
10th – competition closes 11am
Innovation is in our nature
Research and Development
Request for support
Available from: Mark.Gaddes@NetworkRail.co.uk • One page • Deadline 4th March 2021