Network Rail launches digital strategy to improve travel experience

Network Rail will carry out a digital railway strategy to help ensure that all new UK trains and signalling are digital or digital ready from 2019. The upgrade is aimed at improving the speed, punctuality and safety of the service. New digital rail technology will be utilised with the intention of allowing trains to run closer together and provide more frequent services. In addition, passengers are expected to be provided with improved mobile and WiFi connectivity. Train drivers will receive real-time
May 14, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

5021 Network Rail will carry out a digital railway strategy to help ensure that all new UK trains and signalling are digital or digital ready from 2019. The upgrade is aimed at improving the speed, punctuality and safety of the service.

New digital rail technology will be utilised with the intention of allowing trains to run closer together and provide more frequent services. In addition, passengers are expected to be provided with improved mobile and WiFi connectivity.

Train drivers will receive real-time information about the network and the location of other trains. For service disruptions, the digital railway will advise signallers of the best option to get services back to normal.

This project stems from an agreement between transport minister Chris Grayling and Network Rail chief Mark Carne.

Digital railway technology will use the near £48bn investment being invested in the UK’s railway network from 2019 to 2024. The Government has also secured £450m specifically for digital railway schemes.

The technology will be operational on the Thameslink service in central London from next year with an estimated 24 trains passing through every hour. The Digital Railway Strategy is being launched in York, on the Transpennine route.

Richard Robinson, chief executive, civil Infrastructure, Europe, Middle East, India & Africa, AECOM has expressed support for the project. He says: “After years of industry wrestling with the productivity gap, the time has come to fully embrace digital innovation and take the necessary step forwards to accelerate delivery.”

Robinson adds that major enhancement investment in the railway is needed for the transformation to be realised. The company anticipates hearing the outcome of how the announcement aligns with the Department for Transport’s ambitions for increased third party investment and how it could compliment projects such as the AESCOM backed Heathrow Southern Rail proposal.

“We hope to continue working with Network Rail to support them in achieving their Digital Railway goals,” Robinson concluded.

Related Content

  • August 5, 2016
    Network Rail successfully tests new trains using advanced ‘in-cab’ signalling system
    An advanced signalling system that will allow trains to travel every two to three minutes through central London was successfully tested using Govia Thameslink Railway’s new Siemens Class 700 trains for the first time. The Thameslink Programme, part of Network Rail’s Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers and businesses, achieved another milestone in the early hours of Saturday morning as it successfully ran a Class 700 train through the central London ‘cor
    Read More
  • December 19, 2017
    Highways England awards NRTS contract to Telent Technology services
    Highways England (HE) has awarded the second National Roads Telecommunications Service (NRTS) contract, valued £450m ($602m), to Telent Technology Services. The project aims to keep road users as safe and informed as possible on the UK's motorways and will run for seven years from March 2018. In addition, this technology will also continue to support the smart motorway and expressway programmes.
    Read More
  • November 23, 2018
    Cut freight deliveries – improve Southampton’s air quality
    Taking the pressure off cities’ road networks can have a beneficial effect on the environment. David Crawford looks at a new economic model which seeks to quantify the societal effect of freight traffic in Southampton, one of the UK’s five most polluted cities Cuts of 60% or more in volumes of freight deliveries are being predicted - along with badly-needed improvements in air quality - from a load consolidation scheme currently being introduced in the UK port city of Southampton. The forecasts are based o
    Read More
  • May 16, 2018
    ACE report: private sector and user-pay for English roads
    It’s one minute to midnight for funding England’s roads, according to a timely new report - and the clock’s big hand is pointing to some form of user-pay solution, reports David Arminas. Is there any way out of future user-pay funding for England’s highway infrastructure? The answer is a resounding ‘no’, according to the recently-published report Funding Roads for the Future. The 25-page document by the London-based Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) calls for a radical rethink about how to
    Read More

Highlighted Content