Skip to main content

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.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cubic: predictive analytics is putting fortune tellers out of business
    November 23, 2018
    The rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence means that fortune tellers will soon be out of business. Ed Chavis takes a behind the scenes look at the world of predictive analytics ver since organisations started taking advantage of insights derived from Big Data, data scientists concentrated their efforts on the ability to make correct assumptions about the future. A few years later, with the help of automation, developments in machine learning (ML) and advancements in the application of a
  • Australia’s Transurban to trial road user charging
    March 27, 2015
    Speaking at a major industry forum, Scott Charlton, CEO of Australian toll roads operator, Transurban, said that the country’s major cities risk a decline in liveability without major investment in transport systems and an overhaul of transport funding model. Charlton said that despite significant progress by state governments traditional funding systems were outdated, unsustainable and unfair, and cannot sustain the funding needed to address Australia’s transport infrastructure deficit. Charlton said it
  • Masabi named as finalist for global mobile award
    February 7, 2013
    The JustRide end-to-end Smartphone Ticketing system for transit developed by mobile transport ticketing supplier Masabi has been named as a finalist in this year's Global Mobile Awards in the Best Mobile Innovation for Smart Cities category alongside AT&T, Vodafone, Huawei, Streetline and ZTE. The first JustRide system was launched on Boston's commuter rail network in November 2012 and, says the company, within seven weeks had already sold more than 100,000 tickets and now accounts for almost 10 per cent of
  • A carbon free and accident free Europe by 2015?
    February 2, 2012
    By 2050, the Europe Commission aims to make transport in Europe carbon- and accident-free. Between now and then, however, a significant technological development and deployment effort is needed. Here, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, talks about what's being done. In many respects, COOPERS, CVIS and SAFESPOT, set up by the European Commission (EC) to explore the potential of cooperative infrastructure systems, are already legacy projects. Between them, the three devel