19.11.13
Enabling Innovation Team announces Radical Train funding finalists
The first four finalists have been awarded £2.5m investment from the Enabling Innovation Team’s (EIT) Radical Train competition, which with match-funding from the organisations themselves means £6m being spent on design and development.
There were 57 initial bids for the funding, showing the amount of interest in the competition. The four successful finalists are:
• Revolution VLR Consortium (Very Light Rail) consisting of TDI (Europe) Ltd (Transport Design International), Unipart Rail Ltd, Warwick Manufacturing Group centre HVM Catapult, Trelleborg PPL Ltd, Allectra Ltd and GKN Land Systems for their low carbon, very-lightweight whole passenger railcar demonstrator.
• Holdtrade Ltd, Transnet, Huddersfield University and HBA Ltd for their radical freight bogie concept.
• Thales and NewRail for their active adhesion monitoring project.
• A confidential investment in emissions reduction and fuel efficiency technology.
The teams will now demonstrate innovations for new rolling stock. The applications were assessed on their ability to realise significant improvements and benefits for passengers, freight users, TOCs, the environment and the supply industry.
David Clarke, director of the Future Railway Enabling Innovation Team, said: “We are delighted to announce these four investments which bring a mixture of new technologies and organisations to the UK rail sector. We’re looking forward to the winners demonstrating their proposals to show how they can deliver a tangible benefit to both the UK rail sector and to the economy through exports.”
RTM’s interview with David Clarke about Radical Train can be found here.
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