Minister for Transport visits Imperial to discuss innovations in rail

Lord Adonis visits Imperial’s Future Railway Research Centre –News

Friday 3 April 2009
By Colin Smith

How to make the railways faster, safer, and more energy efficient was the topic of discussion this week when the Minister for Transport Lord Andrew Adonis met with Imperial engineers.

The Minister, together with Mr Rick Haythornthwaite, Chairman designate of Network Rail, visited Imperial’s Future Railway Research Centre (FRRC) to learn about projects that are exploring ways to reduce track fatigue, improve safety through better carriage design and advance engine efficiencies with new electrical technologies.

Partners include Network Rail, with whom FRRC engineers are working on challenges such as how to reduce wear and tear that can lead to track failure.

Researchers showed the Minister newly-developed models that help them to understand how heavy loads contribute to track metal fatigue at junctions and points. These movable tracks enable trains to cross from one line to another and degrade faster than other parts of the track due to friction. FRRC engineers are looking at ways to make trains lighter to reduce this friction and thus the damage done to points and junctions.

FRRC Chair has been appointed by the Government to investigate high speed rail in the UK

Reducing the CO2 emitted by diesel train engines by partly converting them to hybrid diesel/electric models was a way of making the rail network more environmentally sustainable, FRRC researchers told the Minister.

They demonstrated the Train Energy Simulator computer modelling program that they are using to evaluate the performance of new high energy density batteries that can be fitted alongside diesel engines to help power the train and cut the amount of fuel consumed, reducing its CO2 emissions.

The Minister also heard how high performance fly wheels could improve the energy efficiency of trains. These could be fitted inside engines to capture, store and reuse the energy generated by trains as they brake.

Train carriages that crumple on impact as cars do was another project demonstrated to the Minister. He heard how the FRRC is working with Railway Research UK to improve passenger safety by developing carriages that absorb more of the energy in a crash.

FRRC Chair Professor Roderick Smith took the opportunity to speak to the Minister about his appointment this week as chair of the High Speed 2 Expert Challenge Panel. This will help steer the Government’s plans for a possible high speed rail network that will link London to cities and towns in the north and west to improve inter-city journey times and stimulate the economy and industry. Professor Smith concludes:

“It was a welcome opportunity to meet the Minister as it gave us a chance to show him how we could make rail in the future much more environmentally friendly and safer. We hope he left the FRRC brimming with ideas.”