Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept but a present reality. This concept is no different in the rail industry, and was a hot topic of discussion at TransCityRail South 2025.
One of the key messages to be presented was that there is no time to waste, and that the collection of better-quality data to drive AI decisions must begin now. Yung Loo, Senior Engineer at Arup commented on that idea, saying:
“Definitely, the time is now. The best time was probably yesterday but absolutely right now.
“I think it’s in all of our interests to have a deeper and better understanding of our assets and the only way to do that is by getting better quality data, and curating new data coming in.”
Once this data has been gathered, it can be paired with emerging AI service so that it can begin to have an impact on services. Yung also commented that, if the industry does not embrace the power of AI now, the opportunity could be missed. This sentiment of using digital innovations to drive innovation was echoed by Anna Saunders, Senior Asset Engineer at Network Rail High Speed.
Despite high speed rail encountering different issues to other services, Anna commented on how AI can help make highspeed rai more efficient:
“Embracing, but also learning from and developing those ideas is the best way to go to be able to get the efficiency and run a reliable railway. Looking into reliability centred maintenance, and risk-based maintenance, art two key things that we need to do.
“Both also need complete data sets, so that we understand where we’re going to put our resource to get those efficiencies.”
Whilst embracing AI seems to be a logical step to achieving improvement across the rail network, not all are as eager as others. Some people understand that some caution needs to be exercised in the pursuit of efficiency.
One such person is Gareth Evans, Network Rail’s Head of Rail Technology, who explained how having confidence in the systems being rolled out is crucial. Gareth said that:
“We’ve got the triple threat of ageing infrastructure, cost pressures and environmental challenges, so we need to do something differently but I think we need the right checks and balances in place and I’m not quite sure we’re there yet.
“There’s some good work going on but in terms of safety critical infrastructure and making sure passengers have confidence in that, I’m cautious. Also, we shouldn’t underestimate the challenge in terms of transforming our people to accept the technology and be competent and capable in the technology.”
