*|MC:SUBJECT|*

Everything that happened on Day Two of the RIA Innovation Conference

Our Innovation Conference closed yesterday afternoon. What a great couple of days, thank you to everyone who joined us!

The second day of the Conference saw another exciting line up of speakers and workshops, and plenty of members networking. Here is what took place.

And scroll down for the latst episode of RIA Rail TV...

A responsibility to look like the customers we serve

We were delighted to welcome Network Rail Chair Sir Peter Hendy CBE to open Day 2 of our Innovation Conference. He began by urging the industry to communicate what the railways can bring the country, saying "the railway creates social and economic value, and we would be poorer without it.”

On the Whole Industry Strategic Plan (WISP), the intention is to set out in advance what the rail industry can do to meet the Government's agenda. It will for the first time set out what, from the railways, the country needs. And on Great British Railways (GBR), he said they are trying to put the right team in place to get ready for the coming months and years.

To help, Sir Peter stressed that "part of your innovation agenda has to be getting costs down", and insisted it wasn't a case for more regulation, rather it is about people trying harder to find better ways of doing things.

He also issued a call for the industry to improve its diversity - "we all have a responsibility to make the industry look more like the customers it serves. We need to attract the best from a diverse background if we are going to innovate." To wrap up Sir Peter highlighted that in 2025 it will mark the 200-year anniversary of the railways and urged the industry to get behind the celebrations.

Reducing the friction of innovation

Howard Mitchell, Head of Innovation at HS2, was our next speaker and covered how his team has a breadth of experience from other sectors, such as energy and aviation. He was clear that their job is as "facilitators reducing the friction of the process, but they are not 'doing the do'."

He said the key for his team is to "act fast and help people on the ground trying to deliver those innovations."

Next up was Mark Rayner, Senior Innovation Specialist at Innovate UK EDGE. "You have to fund for commercialisation. That is the time when innovation and large corporate innovation needs to take care of the smaller innovators." Mark said, explaining that they have taken 30 companies through 2 cohorts of the EDGE programme, to support companies to innovate.

Following this, we held a panel sessions with David Rowe from Network Rail, Anita Brown from Avanti West Coast, Rikesh Shah from TfL, alongside Howard Mitchell and Mark Rayner. Rikesh Shah said "clients like TfL, Network Rail, HS2 and National Highways are increasingly talking to each to discuss innovation", an important aspect in ensuring the supply chain was getting things right.

Anita added: "The things we do well are that our people are really passionate and they care. What needs to change is processes and procedures, and simplifying things." David Rowe agreed, highlighting the breadth of projects in Network Rail's R&D Portfolio and the real impacts the projects were having.

Performance based maintenance

Chris Pike, Sector Director for UK Rail and Daniel Burggraf, Asset Management Consultant from Arcadis then took to the stage to talk about their 'Performance Based Maintenance', which is being used on the Elizabeth Line. "If we collaborate with you, we can help transform your teams to do maintenance in a different way".

Daniel highlighted some clear benefits of their work with the Dutch railways, including: 54% reduction in number of failures since 2010; 51% reduction in average time to repair; average number of failures per contracts reduced; and big reduction in maintenance costs.

After the keynote, we again held a series of workshops in the afternoon, ranging from how to engage with the Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE), UKRRIN's Centres of Excellence and the Rail Technology Strategy led by RSSB.

Find where the industry agrees and communicate that strongly

Our final speaker was Professor Sarah Sharples, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department for Transport (DfT), who started her career with a PhD from the University of Nottingham and has spent 25 years in rail.

She explained that much of the Government's challenge is to balance risk with good value for the taxpayer. She said how the rail industry was not the easiest to access, highlighting an 'acronym buster' document she used at the start of her career.

Turning to GBR, Sarah was clear that whilst it's a period of change there is a real opportunity. "It is our job to think how R&D and innovation funding can be simplified." And on what the industry can do to support her role, she urged the audience to identify a handful of clear, succinct messages that can come to Government. "Find where the industry agrees and communicate that strongly."

Be optimistic

To close the Conference, RIA Chairman David Tonkin was clear that despite the challenges ahead, there is real opportunity under GBR to bring track and train together and to give confidence to this Government that the industry can deliver cost-effectively. David also thanked all our speakers and everyone involved in organising the Conference.

A thank you from Team RIA!

On behalf of all at Team RIA, thanks for joining us over the two days. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed organising it!

Coming up for Unlocking Innovation

We still have lots planned for our Unlocking Innovation programme this year. In fact our next Unlocking Innovation event will be at Railtex / Infrarail in just under two weeks' time! It takes place 10-12 May at London Olympia - register for the free exhibition here.

And on 15 June, we will host an event on 'Unlocking Innovation for the 'Passenger Railway' - again it is free and open to all. Sign up here today.

Stay tuned for more!