Battery-powered train wins industry award for innovation

Rail technology leader Bombardier Transportation and its key industry partners were recognised at this year’s Railway Industry Innovation Awards, when the first battery-powered train to run on Britain’s rail network in more than half a century picked up the prize for best cross-industry project. Part of a cross-industry research programme supporting the Rail Technical Strategy, Network Rail developed the Independently Powered Electric Multiple Unit (IPEMU) in close partnership with Bombardier as well as
July 3, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Rail technology leader 513 Bombardier Transportation and its key industry partners were recognised at this year’s Railway Industry Innovation Awards, when the first battery-powered train to run on Britain’s rail network in more than half a century picked up the prize for best cross-industry project.

Part of a cross-industry research programme supporting the Rail Technical Strategy, Network Rail developed the Independently Powered Electric Multiple Unit (IPEMU) in close partnership with Bombardier as well as with industry service operator Abellio Greater Anglia, and the Rail Executive research group RSSB through the Future Railway programme.

Network Rail Principal Engineer James Ambrose said, “After months of engineering and testing, the IPEMU ran in trial passenger service earlier this year just as we would like it, thanks to the hard work of all parties involved. We are always looking for ways to reduce the cost of running the railway and make it greener. The IPEMU has the potential to contribute significantly towards both those goals.”

Related Content

  • Bristol’s buses trial CycleEye detection system
    July 7, 2017
    Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c
    Read More
  • Reflecting on five years of important ITS progress
    January 7, 2013
    Former head of the ITS Joint Program Office Shelley Row has passed the baton to a new director. Now working as an independent consultant, here she reflects on her five years at the helm of the JPO and what the future may hold for ITS in the US. During a mid-morning in Paris earlier this year, having just landed, I decided to take a trip on the city’s subway (Paris’ underground metro) into the city centre. A family with a small boy – about nine years old – boarded the same train. They were American and we st
    Read More
  • Uber clean-up - those all-important facts and figures
    September 11, 2020
    Ride-hailing giant says it can switch to all-electric vehicles 'in any major city' by 2030
    Read More
  • Volvo and KPMG find buses are key to urban air quality
    September 13, 2016
    Buses can play a key role in the battle to improve air quality in towns and cities as David Crawford discovers. A city with a population of half a million would gain about US$12.3 million in annualised societal savings if all its buses ran on electricity instead of diesel. This is the conclusion of a wide-ranging analysis carried out by Swedish bus manufacturer Volvo Group and global business consultants KPMG.
    Read More

Highlighted Content