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Day One at Conference
With a jam-packed agenda, the first day of the 2023 RIA Innovation Conference included keynote speeches, Tech Talks, Exhibitor Spotlights and a TOC Pitch Sessions.  

We look forward to seeing attendees again tomorrow for Day Two! 
Making the positive case for rail 
RIA Chief Executive Darren Caplan welcomed delegates and said how much he was looking forward to the next two days. He said the future of the rail industry looks positive, with passenger numbers last month hitting 100% of pre-Covid levels, and revenues up to 90%. 

So instead of planning for managed decline, the railways need to be preparing for growth and delivering more capacity, and innovation will be essential to do that.
Rail & HS2 Minister Huw Merriman MP then joined the conference by video link.  He picked up on Darren’s theme, stating that research and innovation will provide the industry with ways to meet the twin challenges of decarbonisation and growing the railway in future.

The UK has a long record of creativity and innovation in rail, the Minister said, and Great British Railways will place huge emphasis on working with industry to achieve success.
Stakeholders’ view
Network Rail’s Chief Technology Officer Robert Ampomah took the opportunity to remind everyone that innovation on the railway is not new, referring to the industry’s “historic roots” of being creative in both thinking and technology.

Network Rail's four priority areas are to make the railway cost-effective and financially sustainable, to ensure safety and security, to promote reliable performance and increased capacity and to improve sustainability.

Robert described four recent examples of innovation adopted by Network Rail: the Flowbridge footbridge, Wave Walker being used to reinforce sea defences at Dawlish, digitised lineside inspection and the increased use of drones.
Achila Mazini, Industrial Engagement Fellow at the University of Birmingham, followed, speaking on behalf of UKRRIN. She explained the connection and collaboration between universities and industry, and outlined how UKRRIN’s centres of excellence are helping to improve capacity, productivity and performance on the UK railway.
Her colleague Holly Foss talked of the role of education in innovation, which she said was “all about people”. The universities therefore need to foster the best environments to motivate innovators and give them the best opportunity to innovate.
Matt Chuter is VP Commercialisation, Defence and Security, at Ploughshare, the government-owned company that spins out technology from the Ministry of Defence. He spoke to delegates about the similarities between technologies used in the defence industry and rail industries. Both operate complex vehicles and machinery, both have large, diverse and skilled workforces and both have safety as a priority.
Looking to the future 
After delegates had time for some networking and to take a look at the exhibition stands, the late-morning session started with Howard Mitchell, Head of Innovation at HS2 and Timothy Mangozza from management consultants PA Consulting.

 
Howard used a slide from his presentation the previous year, updating delegates on how the innovation process at HS2 had progressed since then. “Innovation is a team sport,” he said, adding that HS2 now works with 25 innovation start-ups compared with 10 a year ago, with £350 million in savings already enabled for Phase 1 of the project. 

Tim explained PA Consulting’s role in facilitating innovation. Current systems are not capable of delivering innovation quickly enough, he said, so they needed to be improved and streamlined. 
Rufus Impey, who is Lead Strategic Partner with the Great British Railways Transition Team, addressed the conference next. He talked about how research, development and innovation sits in the railway’s long-term strategy, but the industry needs to do things differently and not get stuck in the various “valleys of death” that occur in the lifetime of a project. He commented how GBR will need to influence the existing landscape in terms of public funding, train operations and the supply chain.
 
Following a great networking lunch, eight exhibitors were given 10 minutes each to make their pitch to delegates, highlighting the features of their exhibits. Those exhibitors were: 
  • Connected Places Catapult
  • University of Nottingham
  • Complete Cyber
  • Phoenix Contact
  • One Big Circle
  • Transmission Dynamics
  • Camlin Rail
  • Network Rail 
While those 'spotlights' were taking place, invited representatives of several companies were introducing their products and services to a panel of train operator procurement executives.
Innovative products
Delegates took their places back in the auditorium for a keynote speech from Maximilian Eichhorn, VP Digital Products and Services at Knorr-Bremse, who talked about the opportunities and challenges that digital systems bring. Operators with train fleets from different manufacturers have to deal with differing digital systems and standards, but even trains from the same builders can include different subsystems using different data protocols.  These have to be made to talk with each other so that the data can also be shared with all interested stakeholders, which itself raises the question of who owns the data and what can legally be shared.
Then it was time for some Tech Talks, a series of short presentations by some well-known innovators:
  • Milda Gircyte, Head of Product of CrossTech, introduced the conference to Hubble, an automate lineside inspection tool that uses machine learning to detect faults such as vegetation obscuring signs and signals.
  • Andy Willetts, Senior Mobility Account Manager for Bentley in Northern Europe, and Shervin Yousefzadeh, Digital Construction Manager for the Transpennine Route Upgrade with BAM Nuttall, combined to talk about the Digital Ecosystem, which allows managers to make informed decisions, keeping track of progress using the system’s Project Dashboard.
  • Patrick Dobson, Rail Segment Lead UK & Ireland, Schneider Electric, was joined on stage by C2C’s Paul Meenan as they discussed Smart Electrical Infrastructure and the technology being installed at Barking station. This pilot programme was, said Paul, not solely for the benefit of C2C but also for the wider industry.
  • Mick Corner, Field Operations Director, Alstom, and James Connolly, Head of Client Partnerships, eviFile, explained how they are replacing paper processes with digital equivalents, particularly for the assurance of signalling installations and testing.
  • Emily Kent, Co-Founder, One Big Circle, introduced AVIR, the on-train video system that “enables you to see what you need to see”. Video data is transferred from trains to computer screens for analysis while being combined with other data sources such as the hazard directory. It’s all about safety and having fewer boots on ballast doing inspections, Emily said, adding that an hour on AVIR can also save eight hours on track.

Attendees joined RIC's biggest ever exhibition
With thanks to our sponsors and strategic partners 
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Get involved using the Conference hashtag: #RIC23
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Day Two at Conference

After a very full first day, which culminated in a networking drinks, dinner, quiz and spoof caino first day, delegates at RIA’s Innovation Conference were eagerly anticipating the start of day two. Here's all that happened, including our closing keynote, GBRTT Lead Anit Chandarana - read on... 
New publications 

RIA launch Data & Digital paper. RIA Innovation Director Milda Manomaityte welcomed delegates back for the second day and briefly recapped Day 1. She announced that the DfT had released its Digital Transport Strategy the day before, which sets out how DfT will work with the transport sector to improve the discoverability, accessibility and quality of transport data to support innovation.

The timing of this coincided with RIA launching its own report, ‘Data and Digital Technologies in Rail’, which outlines the challenges and opportunities facing the rail industry on data and digital technologies. Following a consultation of RIA members, the report includes six key ‘asks’ of Government, policy makers and clients, which would enable, expedite and ensure the success of the UK railway’s digital transition over the next 10 years: the ‘Digital Decade’.
The view from Westminster 

Following Rail & HS2 Minister Huw Merriman MP yesterday, today it was the turn of Labour’s Shadow Minister for Science, Research & Innovation Chi Onwurah MP to address delegates by video link.

She said how pleased she was that RIA has organised a conference looking at railway innovation, and reminded delegates that the first major innovation was the introduction of the commercial, passenger-carrying railway by George Stephenson, who came from the same area as her constituency in Newcastle upon Tyne.
“I am really enthusiastic for the future of our railway network,” she said, adding that she believes that having the railway under government control will allow new measures to meet customer needs to be introduced more quickly.

On decarbonisation, the Shadow Minister commented that a cost-effective electrification programme is urgently needed to unlock carbon savings and encourage modal shift from road to rail.
Major innovation opportunities 
A team of speakers from the East West Railway Company - Will Reddaway, Head of Innovation; Caroline Eglinton, Head of Inclusion; Andy Bagguley, Head of Systems and Martin Phillips, Head of Customer Strategy, combined to inform delegates of their collective approach to innovation.

Services from Oxford to Milton Keynes are due to start late 2024/early 2025 using cascaded Class 196 trains. The full railway, from Oxford to Cambridge, is looking likely to be open by the end of the decade.
Michael Davies, Insight and Innovation Manager at Transport for Wales, introduced delegates to Llwybr Newydd, the New Path that is TfW’s transport strategy and which guides the Welsh transport innovation strategy. Passenger demands have changed and the Innovation Steering Group is looking to meet those challenges.

TfW runs TfWLAB, and Michael launched its 2023 challenge and opportunity statements at RIA’s Innovation Conference, introducing this year’s key topics of Customer Experience, Modal Shift and the Future of Transport. RIA members and conference delegates were invited to get involved.
The importance of data 
Three more keynotes were presented after the networking break. Emma Dickson and Paul Watson from Arcadis were first up, speaking about ‘Assured and Data-led’.

Senior Director Paul Watson spoke about Assured and Data-led Delivery, describing how he sometimes got "that sinking feeling” when discovering that a project isn’t going as well as reports suggest. Using data correctly can overcome this, but the challenge is how to do so when “96% of all data goes unused in the engineering and construction industry”.
 
Design & Engineering Service Lead Emma Dickson took over to discuss Assured and Data-led Design and Engineering, and how it can be used to detect potential clashes in design early. Model-based systems engineering has been around for a long time but is still not used properly or well enough, she said.
Marie Banks, Head of Transformation and Digitalisation at DB Cargo, gave a freight operator’s view on innovation. She said that a good understanding of legacy assets is essential – they have a lot of them – but they also need to look forward. Digital access, intelligent assets and data-driven decision making all drive innovation and efficiency in the business.

Prof Andy Doherty, Chief Technology Officer at Wales’ Global Centre Rail Excellence, gave delegates a quick update on the project to build Wales’, and the UK’s first dedicated test track that will allow continuous running for trains on the outer loop and infrastructure testing on the shorter one. 

“We have to change how we are doing things”, he said. “The world is changing around us.”
Spotlights

Eight more exhibitors 'spotlighted' their latest offerings with short presentations on their stands after lunch. The exhibitors were: 

  • eviFile
  • Telent
  • Route Reports
  • Thales
  • Park Signalling
  • Comms Design
  • Unipart Rail
  • Network Rail Spotlight

Once again, invited representatives of several companies were introducing their products and services to a panel of train operator procurement executives while those spotlights were taking place.
Digital all the way 
The afternoon session commenced with a talk from Andrew Hawthorn, Chief Solution Architect for High Integrity Systems at CapGemini, who told delegates the industry has to embrace change or fail. It has changed constantly in the past, now it needs to be more digital in its products, services, organisation and business.

The industry needs to understand how digitalisation will affect operations, customers, the environment and the industry itself.
Martijn Gilbert, who is Managing Director of open-access train operator Lumo, introduced his new train service between Edinburgh and London that commenced on 25 October 2021. Now running 10 services a day, its two main features are that it is 100% electric – there are no diesel engines in the fleet – and that his company offers “a fair proposition”.

The service is ‘good standard’ class only, and fares average around £37 from London to Edinburgh. All booking and ticketing is online and digital and Lumo has fully embraced new technology.
Two more TechTalks followed. Geoffrey McCormick, Strategic Design Lead at the Connected Places Catapult, shared a case study of his work with Craig Williams of the Aluminium Lighting Company of South Wales. Sensors attached to the lighting columns now monitor their structural integrity, advising when they need repair or replacement. Craig approached Network Rail Wales & Western with his development and found them very helpful in getting his new product into service.
Jarek Rosinksi, Founder of Transmission Dynamics, explained how he uses a combination of video and accelerometers to monitor pantographs and overhead wiring in real time. If any problem occurs and is detected by the accelerometers, then the infrastructure controller is shown video of the event so decisions can be made on what needs to be repaired and how urgently. 

All of the equipment is manufactured in-house and the system uses artificial intelligence to learn from each incident.
Closing remarks 

Anit Chandarana, Lead Director at the Great British Railways Transition Team, gave the final presentation of the conference. He referred back to his presentation at RIA’s Annual Conference last November, when he said that rail is too siloed, too slow and too proscriptive.

The last 12 months have been challenging politically, but Secretary of State Mark Harper and Rail & HS2 Minister Huw Merriman, who addressed the conference on the first day, have brought stability. They are pushing hard for rail reform to go ahead with major involvement from the private sector.

GBR intends to be a guiding mind, but not a centralised, controlling one. However he mentioned two areas that, in his opinion, need addressing. Timetabling is an important topic, yet it is still largely carried out using traditional methods and there is no one in overall charge. 

Referring to innovation, he said that the railway was poor at whole-system thinking, and it was frustrating to try to put new technology into an industry that is so fragmented. Once again, no one is accountable for making things happen at a whole-industry level.
Finally, RIA Chairman David Tonkin gave a summary of the conference’s proceedings. He called the conference “very good with splendid presentations” and said he had heard some brilliant ideas and new ways of working.

“Innovation is not a gamble,” he added. “This is a great industry and rail is massively well funded.” Rail provides a huge market penetration opportunity, but the industry itself is expensive and must push for cost reductions and a lower cost base.
Thank you from RIA 
Team RIA would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who joined us in Nottingham. We had a fantastic time hosting, and we hope you enjoyed attending. We look forward to seeing you and other RIA members next year in Wales!