Taking a
new line
With the UK rail industry predicted to face many
challenges in the future, Network Rail believes that
a new strategy should be deployed towards research
and development.
N
etwork Rail’s current
research and innovation
strategy is mainly focused
on technology planning and
constructing a systems approach in
which the short-term needs and the
long-term vision can be balanced. “It is
a transformative time on the railways”,
said Dr Paul Zanelli, Head of Research
and Development at Network Rail.
The partnership with the Royal
Academy of Engineering is a valuable
component of the strategy that is
delivering that long term vision and
is a demonstration of the value of
wide-ranging deep thinking research
that goes back to the fundamentals to
discover new and better ways to do
things.
The impact of research
Forecasts suggest that in 20 years’
time, many more passengers will
be travelling by train than there are
today; freight traffic is also predicted
to grow. In a rail system that often
seems already to be operating
perilously close to capacity, this is a
challenge, and it is not one that can be
met just by building new lines.
86
PECM ssue 15
The need to get greater capacity into
the existing rail system is just one of
a wide range of factors – the four Cs:
carbon, cost, capacity and customers –
that are driving the industry towards a
more structured approach to research
and innovation. This is encapsulated in
the ‘Rail Technical Strategy’ published
in autumn 2012 produced on behalf
of the Technical Strategy Leadership
Group on behalf of the rail industry in
Great Britain. Dr Paul Zanelli is working
on his company’s technical strategy,
and publication is due in summer
2013.
Rail co-sponsored Research Chair with
the Academy several years ago and
this has proved a highly productive
combination.
Dr Zanelli’s recent appointment at
Network Rail is seen as part of a
wider rail industry move to install best
practice in strategic planning in core
areas and then link the strategies
through to investment. He sees ‘a
strong desire to change’ within the
organisation.
Dr Zanelli wants to build a research
strategy that links the different
research venues through a unified
structure which also then relates to
the overall strategic drivers of the
business. It is based on what the large
automotive and aerospace groups such
as Ford, BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce
do, but it is fairly new thinking in the
rail industry. “We need to be sure then
that we have a balance of investment
through the range of technology
maturity,” he said.
Network Rail has strategic
relationships with four UK universities
(Southampton, Sheffield, Birmingham
and Nottingham) and individual
projects with others. The University
of Nottingham had the first Network
Professor John Andrews, Network Rail’s
joint Research Chair with the Royal
Academy of Engineering, leads a team
in investigating and modelling decision
making processes in maintenance and
asset renewal. This is, on Dr Zanelli’s
reckoning, “towards the strategic side
of the spectrum, but it represents
absolutely the kind of thing we should
be doing”.
This kind of balance is not easy to