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The School of Engineering at MMU has longstanding research into many aspects of railway engineering. This commenced in 1998 under the leadership of Professor Simon Iwnicki, who carried out research into the interaction between railway vehicles and the track. The understanding of the dynamics of the wheel rail contact that has resulted from this work has been developed into a number of tools and techniques that are being used on a daily basis by the rail industry both to design new railway systems and to predict the deterioration of railway wheels and rails. This allows railway engineers to predict and control roughness growth on rails and to optimise wheel profiles and maintenance intervals on wheel and track.
This work is now helping the railway industry internationally to realise both economic and environmental impacts as track maintenance costs are reduced, safety levels are enhanced and passengers continue to switch from road to rail in increasing numbers. This is evidenced by the award of new research contracts and industry funding and by direct input into industry standards.
The Railway Systems Group develops state-of-the-art condition monitoring and instrumentation systems that identify system faults before they degrade into failures that cause passenger disruption. The key impacts of the Railway Systems Group lie in the following areas:
Examples of direct quantifiable impact are a reduction of over 60,000 minutes in train delays over the last one year period through monitoring of 5,600 railway point machines (the cost to Network Rail of delays is between £20/min to £160/min). Also, the deployment of an award winning conductor shoe monitoring system, which has resulted in an estimated savings of 12,150 minutes. Expert advice and practical prototypes have been through active contracts from railway companies totalling £4.2M. This includes an influence in the £7 billion successful order from the Department for Transport to Hitachi for new trains, energy saving strategies reported by the Office of the Rail Regulator and evidence to the Transport Select Committee on winter operations. These have been achieved by working extensively with the British and international railway industries in the area of condition monitoring and bespoke instrumentation systems that support an improvement in the dependability of rail travel.
Reductions in railway infrastructure and operating costs, through efficiency gains, deliver benefits to taxpayers (via lower subsidies) and/or passengers (via lower fares). Research undertaken by the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds from 2005 onwards revealed a 37% efficiency gap in relation to rail infrastructure costs and operations, relative to international best practice. The key impact of this research was to inform the Office of Rail Regulation's (ORR) setting, in 2008, of annual efficiency targets for Network Rail for the subsequent five-year period, resulting in a reduction in costs from £18.2bn to £15.8bn over the five year regulatory `control period' starting 2009/10. A secondary impact of the ITS Leeds research was to provide key benchmarking and evidence in more recent ORR efficiency assessments (2010) and Sir Roy McNulty's long-term policy-setting Rail Value for Money (VfM) study (2011). Extending the reach of these research impacts, the water and sewerage regulator OFWAT has, from 2013, adopted the ITS Leeds approach for its latest periodic review.
Stittle's research on Britain's rail network has provided an evidence base for much public and parliamentary debate about the merits of the private rail industry and about how best to reform Britain's railways. Stittle's contribution to rail-reform debate has been achieved through citations of his work by MPs in parliamentary debate, and through publication of many of his research findings in a report published by the main railway unions. Through its substantial influence on the railway unions' report, Stittle's research has had impact on the unions' campaign for better state oversight of the railway industry. The results of his work have thus been changes both to the campaigning activities of railway unions and more broadly to public debate about the rail industry.
ERPE, through the application of XiTRACK technology (using advanced polyurethane polymers to reinforce the ballast matrix, enhancing strength, stiffness and resilience) — has reduced track maintenance by a factor of up to 40, increased maintenance intervals from 3-monthly to 10 years with track speeds increased up to 125 mph in critical sections of the UK, Italy and Hong Kong rail networks. Developments in Finite Element (FE) geomechanics related to Rayleigh waves are used by HS2; and FE backed artificial neural networks are informing US High Speed operators on ground borne vibrations. The financial impact of XiTrack is estimated at least £50M; and avoidance of Rayleigh wave problems and ground borne vibration mitigation, in the region of £10M; plus benefits to millions of passengers.
A University of Nottingham research programme on rail human factors, in collaboration with Network Rail, has delivered significant impact to practitioners and professional services within the industry. New tools for workload management and efficiency are now routinely used as part of Network Rail's ergonomics toolkit and are supporting the fulfilment of the company's National Operating Strategy. Risk analysis tools have also contributed to Network Rail's programme providing enhanced asset information.
These tools have also been taken up by international train operators in Australia and the Netherlands.
This case study highlights the research carried out by Plymouth researchers in developing a new product in coded railway signalling, the EBI Track 400. Through this patented product, Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd has become the world leader in coded track systems, currently making profits in excess of $6 Million per annum through worldwide sales. The innovative coding algorithms and enhanced system performance has improved railway reliability, eliminated `false positive' danger alerts, and achieved savings for train operators while improving the travelling experience. It has also secured existing jobs and increased investment at their Plymouth site.
Research by the University of Southampton into reducing railway noise has a created new technology that has allowed railway networks in Europe and Australia to be expanded, while preserving citizens' quality of life. Under a licence agreement with Tata Steel, patented rail dampers have been fitted on around 155 km of track in 16 countries and proved critical to a new route in New South Wales. They have enabled operators to save tens of millions of pounds that would have been spent on expensive noise barriers, and earned Tata Steel significant amounts in sales and the University in royalties [exact figures removed for publication]. Follow-on research funding of £2M from EU and EPSRC.
The transport of people, goods, and utilities (e.g. electricity, oil, gas and water) is essential to civilised life, and in turn depends on a robust, reliable and affordable infrastructure. Since 1995, the University of Southampton Geomechanics Group (SGG) has led the development of an enhanced, science-based framework for understanding the behaviour of geotechnical transport infrastructure through monitoring, modelling and analysis. The techniques we have developed have been used by the builders, owners and operators of transport infrastructure both nationally and internationally to develop improved understandings of infrastructure geotechnical behaviour both during construction and in service. This has led to substantial savings in build, maintenance and operational costs; the implementation of effective remediation and management strategies; and significantly improved infrastructure performance.
The Cullen Report into the Ladbroke Grove rail crash attributed the catastrophic failures of the rail vehicles to "weld unzipping" (brittle fast fracture). Research carried out at Newcastle University into the fabrication and design of aluminium rail vehicles has informed two new European standards: EN 15085 "Railway applications — Welding of railway vehicles and components" and EN 15227, "Crashworthiness requirements for railway vehicle bodies". These two standards have been developed to ensure that the "weld unzipping" failure cannot re-occur in a rail crash. The two standards were formally adopted throughout the EU in 2008, and are mandatory for all aluminium rail vehicles used across Europe.