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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Fasten your seatbelts: it’s going to be a bumpy ride
    June 26, 2018
    A spat has broken out between two major US transportation organisations over how best to pay for road use: the ATA says tolls are ‘fake funding’ while IBTTA has scorned ‘scare tactics and falsehoods’… Much has been made of the state of US roads: everyone agrees that funding is needed – but who should pay? And how? Chris Spear, president and CEO of American Trucking Associationsm(ATA), believes finance is facing a cliff edge: the Highway Trust Fund (HTF), historically the primary source of federal revenue
    Read More
  • AVERE slams EU Council CO2 position
    October 12, 2018
    Electromobility trade association AVERE has slammed a key European Union Council position on future CO2 emissions in cars. AVERE says the stance agreed this week by EU environment ministers “falls short in providing the e-mobility sector with right signals to support the e-mobility transition”. The Council has suggested that cars should put out 35% less CO2 by 2030 compared to 2020 – but just last week MEPs called for a 40% cut. This means that EU states have chosen “to support and prop up old business m
    Read More
  • Speed up pace of infrastructure action, say two thirds of businesses
    October 29, 2015
    The majority of businesses (62 per cent) are concerned with the pace of progress on the delivery of infrastructure projects, and over half (53 per cent) believe they won’t see necessary upgrades in the next five years, according to the 2015 CBI/AECOM Infrastructure Survey. With 94 per cent of the 722 firms surveyed saying the quality of infrastructure is a key deciding factor in planning their investments, CBI/AECOM believe there is clear consensus on the need to speed up the delivery of projects crucia
    Read More
  • Worries as Huawei given role in UK’s 5G network
    April 24, 2019
    Alarm has been expressed by MPs over the UK government’s decision to allow Chinese firm Huawei to work on the UK’s 5G network. Prime minister Theresa May has banned Huawei from supplying ‘core’ parts of the country’s 5G infrastructure – but is believed to have given the green light for it to help deliver what are being called ‘non-core’ parts. As well as being for mobile phones, 5G is the technology which will be used to improve connectivity of autonomous vehicles and traffic controls. However, there ar
    Read More

Highlighted Content