10.03.14
FutureRailway launches electrification competition
FutureRailway has launched a new competition aimed at innovators and engineers who think they can help improve pantograph capability.
Electric trains that can run at faster speeds when in multiple could improve both train performance and network capacity, but existing pantographs cannot be run too close together and are limited in the speed they can achieve. Improvements in pantograph capability are thought to be needed to realise these benefits, so the Pantograph Technologies competition has been established to look at the feasibility of designing a Pantograph Dynamic Behaviour Measurement Device for use in rolling stock maintenance depots.
FutureRailway is seeking to test the dynamic performance of the pantograph before being put into service with the overall objective of reducing the variability in pantograph performance as part of a wider programme to improve OLE system performance and to achieve operation at higher speeds.
Innovators, engineers and designers across a wide range of sectors including transport, civil engineering, electrical engineering and design are invited to develop proposals for the competition, which has a closing date of 12pm on Friday 2 May 2014. There is also a competition briefing/partnership forming event to be held on Friday 21 March 2014, at the Bounds Green Depot in north London.
To find out more about the competition, which is being run by FutureRailway’s Enabling Innovation Team (EIT), click here, or for enquiries about the Pantograph Technologies competition contact [email protected]
Tell us what you think – have your say below or email [email protected]