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The Department for Transport (DfT) has launched the First of a Kind 2020 competition, which includes a £9.4M fund for innovative ideas to develop the UK’s railway.

Innovation UK is working in tandem with the DfT on the project, which will reward rail technology companies hoping to “create a greener, more cost-effective and customer-friendly railway with greater capacity”. The winning projects will receive a share of the £9.4M fund.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “For two centuries the UK has been at the cutting edge of rail technology.

“To build the railway of tomorrow we have to support the inventors and innovators of today. This competition is designed to find the next Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and help them create the technology that defines our railway in the future.”

Future of Transport minister George Foreman visited Riding Sunbeams to launch the competition this week, which won funding to pilot its innovative solar panel rail project in 2019. Riding Sunbeams was one of 24 companies to receive funding of up to £350,000 from a previous version of the DfT competition.

From New Civil Engineer (https://www.newcivilengineer.com/innovative-thinking/dft-launches-competition-to-find-next-brunel-15-01-2020/)

Researchers developing railway station platforms that automatically melt ice have been given a share of £9.4m in Government funding.

The concrete slabs come with a built-in heating system that activates in freezing conditions to prevent dangerous icy conditions for passengers.

Rail Safety and Standards Board figures show that 19 people were killed and more than 7,000 were injured in accidents around platform edges on Britain’s railways in a recent five-year period.

Other projects benefitting from the funding include the Seatfrog Train Swap app, which will allow passengers to quickly and remotely update their seat reservation to another service.

A world-first zero-emission machine for removing and replacing rails has also been developed, along with hydrogen-based steam turbines to provide zero-emission, low-noise rail freight.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “I am delighted to announce the winners of this year’s ‘First of a Kind’ competition which will support better, more environmentally friendly journeys.

“Crucially, these pioneering projects will also ensure that passengers have a more efficient, reliable and responsive railway, making their journeys simpler and easier.

“From clever technology on platforms to prevent icy surfaces, new seat-switching apps and improved 5G Wi-Fi connections, harnessing innovation will be crucial to modernising the network and making our railways greener and cleaner, as we build out of Covid-19 and look to the future.”

In a separate project pioneered by iProov, rail passengers using Eurostar services will soon be able to take advantage of a facial biometric corridor to enable contactless journeys.

The walk-through system will allow customers to complete ticket checks and border exit processes at St Pancras International station without needing to come into contact with people or hardware.

The concept, already trialled in airports to increase speed and safety and manage immigration, is now being brought to train travel as part of a competition run by Innovate UK and funded by the Department for Transport.

Passengers planning to travel on Eurostar services would be offered an accelerated pre-boarding option. Prior to travelling, they would use the Eurostar app to scan their identity documentation. The iProov facial biometric check then uses controlled illumination to authenticate the identity of the user against the ID document.

By 2050, 1 in 4 people will have hearing problems in the UK.

GoMedia will with the support from the Royal National Institute of the Deaf develop and test Hearing Enhanced Audio Relay (HEAR). This solution will address the issue that audio announcements on trains are difficult or impossible to hear for passengers with hearing difficulties. We will develop an affordable software solution that broadcast automatically audio announcements to passengers own devices. It will give passengers with hearing problems the ability to hear audio announcements through their own audio devices. Also passengers can listen to their own content on their device, such as an audiobook. For example, whilst connected to HEAR, the audiobook will pause and make the audio announcement through the passengers own device. HEAR is being developed to be a cost effective solution that can be installed on the majority of train carriages in the UK, and because HEAR is a software solution it will save the UK train industry millions of pounds removing the need to install expensive hardware solutions on board trains. More importantly it will reassure and increase accessibility to the rail network for passengers with hearing problems.

A project that has been developing so-called self-charging trains has won a share of £5m of government funding.

Echion Technologies, based in Sawston near Cambridge, is creating train batteries that can charge from overheard wires, the Department for Transport said.

The trains would be able to use the batteries on unelectrified track.

The project was among the winners of the government's First of a Kind competition.

    G-Volution – using fuel cells to make auxiliary power in trains cleaner
    PathPlanner – making rail freight an easier option
    Varamis – transforming high-speed rail logistics to send parcels
    Hack Partners – automating freight access right management and spot bidding using novel software to drive the shift from road to rail
    TDI – “Freight Skate”, a self-powered freight bogie and platform
    Peak to Peak – a rapidly deployable rail stress sensor for next generation freight monitoring
    EventGo – Intelligent Rail Service Demand Forecasting for Event-based Travel
    Artonezero – NextGen Data-Driven Timetable Performance Optimisation Tool
    One Big Circle – Protection and Resilience for overhead lines using Computer Vision Techniques
    Thales – Fibre Optic Acoustic Sensing Enabled Intruder Detection System
    University of Sheffield – Rail Flood Defender
    Govia Thameslink – Optimal Prediction of Sand for Adhesion, reducing delays in wet conditions
    Focus Sensors – Unauthorised Cable Removal and Fault Triage (preventing cable theft)
    Trains with Brains – a head to toe monitoring solution
    Optimising Railway Possessions – simplifying planning and management of worksites
    Monirail – Portable Track Geometry Measurement System, analysing track damage after incidents to ensure safety
    Park Signalling – open access real-time signalling data

Project title:            UBER – Ultra-high power Battery for low Emission Rail
Lead organisation:   ECHION TECHNOLOGIES LTD
Project grant:          £59,917
Short summary:

Supported by Transport Design International, Horiba Mira and DB Cargo, the team aims to demonstrate its XNO battery chemistry for certain classes of battery electric trains. Specifically, it aims to demonstrate its suitability for passenger trains that can be powered by the AC overhead electrification and charge a battery from the overhead wire (or another form of ‘standard’ trackside power, eg third rail), to then run in battery-only mode on unelectrified sections of a route.

This competition is part of a larger ‘first of a kind’ demonstrator initiative, on behalf of DfT. The initiative aims to accelerate innovation in the UK rail sector and enable technologies to be readily and efficiently integrated into the railway system. This competition is the sixth in the first of a kind portfolio.

This first of a kind competition has three themes:

    Theme 1 – Low emissions and a greener railway (this theme)
    This is phase 1 of a potential 2 phase competition. The decision to proceed with phase 2 will depend on the outcomes from phase 1 and assessment of a separate application into a subsequent phase 2 competition. Only the successful applicants from phase 1 will be invited to apply to take part in phase 2.
    Theme 2 – Rail Freight
    Theme 3 – Cost efficiency and performance priorities for a reliable railway

Your phase 1 project can start by 1 October 2022 and must end by 31 December 2022; it can last up to 3 months.

Your potential phase 2 projects can start by 1 March 2023 and must end by 31 October 2024, with a duration of up to 20 months.
Specific focuses for theme 1

You must address reduced carbon emissions and the impact of the railway on the environment. Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

    technology solutions to substantially reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) when diesel passenger trains are idling
    passenger trains that can be powered by the AC overhead electrification and charge a battery from the overhead wire, to then run in battery only mode on unelectrified section of a route
    battery or hydrogen powered freight trains

The phase 1 project R&D contracts will be up to £60,000 inclusive of VAT. We expect to fund up to 7 projects.

Phase 2 involves up to 3 contracts being awarded to organisations chosen from the successful phase 1 applicants. Up to £740,000 inclusive of VAT will be allocated for each contract, to develop a prototype and undertake field testing for up to 20 months.