Being involved in the rail industry, we at PRV like to keep an eye on the latest developments and innovations coming over the horizon, whether it’s to do with passenger travel, the moving of freight or the development of the trains of the future. So the recent headline about a UK company winning funding to develop a solution for passenger travel and the movement of freight for the future caught our eye.

A St Ives based company has won a share of £2.2m through the Tomorrow’s Train Design Today (TTDT) programme.

Their train carriage design, where passenger carriages can be reconfigured to carry freight or passengers at different times, is one of 3 designs that won a share of the funds to develop the rolling stock of the future.

42 Technology intend to use their share of the funding to continue to develop their flexible carriage and work towards easing congestion on the roads. At off peak times, when commuters are not using trains and they are on their way back out of the major cities, 42 Technology aim to reconfigure the seats, stowing them away and making room for freight. It is hoped this will ease road congestion by getting freight back onto the railways.
In addition, it will bring additional revenue to the UK rail network by increasing the effective use of rolling stock without adding significant operating costs.

“Everyone at 42 Technology is delighted that our outline designs and business case study have been so strongly endorsed by the competition judges. The next stage is for us to move ahead with detailed designs and to build a full scale demonstration model showing the adaptable carriage in action,” said Jon Spratley, who led the consultancy’s multi-disciplinary team in developing its initial concepts and winning submission.

The TTDT is an international competition led by the Rail & Safety Standard Board’s (RSSB) FutureRailway programme in association with the Department for Transport and the Royal Institute of British Architects. It has been set up to speed up research, development and innovation to help ensure the delivery of a Rail Technical Strategy.
One of the objectives of the FutureRailway programme is to find innovative ideas and proposals from across the industry supply chain by understanding the challenges the industry faces.

The judging panel included directors and senior managers from FirstGroup, Angel Trains, Hitachi and the Design Council.

The competition was split into 2 strands focussing on the medium and longer needs of rolling stock. 42 Technology along with PriestmanGoode were winners in the medium term category. Andreas Vogler in association with the German Aerospace centre DLR won the chance to progress its long term high speed double decker concept solution.

Image by permission of  Kholodnitskiy Maksim