14.03.17
TOCs and suppliers come together as RSSB names innovation competition winners
Six successful projects focused on innovation have been given the green light as part of a £4m RSSB competition, meaning TOCs will now take them forward to the next stage of development.
The projects, competing to win a share of the fund as part of the RSSB’s Train Operator Competition 2016, are intended to overcome barriers to innovation in the industry, such as the ability of TOCs to engage effectively with the supply chain – a subject about which both transport minister Paul Maynard and Rail Delivery Group CEO Paul Plummer wrote about in recent issues of RTM.
The competition is designed to encourage more collaboration between the two groups and challenge them to work together to develop pioneering ways to boost performance, reliability and safety.
The £4m fund, sponsored by the RSSB, will now allow winners to take their projects into the delivery phase, subject to contract.
One of the winners was Arriva Trains Wales, which wrote about the project for the latest issue of RTM. Alongside VR Simulation Systems Ltd, the operator created a ‘virtual reality cave’ designed to reduce accidents at the platform train interface (PTI) by simulating the environment in a closed room. The technology, currently being trialled at Arriva’s Cardiff and Chester centres, will help train crew and station staff receive training in a safe and secluded environment.
Other winners include a partnership between Arriva, Cubic, TfL and the University of Portsmouth, which developed technology that can identify flows of people within the station environment and learn to predict crowds before they arrive; a partnership between TfL, Atkins, Arriva, the University of Surrey, Loughborough University and two other firms to facilitate the sharing of disabled customers’ travel requirements; and a consortium of Arriva Rail North, Thales UK and two other companies to develop wearable technology in the form of fitness and activity trackers to monitor staff stress levels.
Take a look at the other projects, including full details of each one, here.
(Top image: Scott Barnet, a conductor from Arriva Trains Wales, in the virtual reality cave)