Linking technology to vision

Our Carbon Footprint is a function of our activity in the world. We can either stop that activity or embrace technology as part of a change in how that activity is generated.

Toufic Machnouk, Network Rail          

Bentley Systems is a Knowledge Partner of CIHT's Partnerships Network. Please visit their website here.

The roundtable began with agreement that technology will be central to delivering a Net Zero railway - but also that will not be possible to transform the network via a series of local decisions. The sector needs a shared vision that allows tactical decisions to be made that have a strategic fit. The vision can explain how technology will help deliver on strategic goals like Net Zero, supporting the roll out of key initiatives including electrification, digital train control and real time monitoring of infrastructure by the trains themselves.

Participants cautioned that care and flexibility are also needed. Rushing to deploy a tech-fix can be counter-productive, particularly if organisations don’t have the capability to adopt it effectively – maturity around the ability to work with data is the classic example. Similarly, some of the technology we believe we’ll need to hit carbon targets in 20 year’s time is either immature or will change several times in that period. The sector needs a mechanism for building in enablers or stepping stones and realising value along the way or it will always be chasing a moving target.

If you want to save the planet, run the trains on time!

Ian Wright, Transport Focus

Any successful vision will have travelers at its heart. A user-centric vision needs to stress door to door journeys and be linked to how people will live and work. To generate lasting behavioral change (or to simply get people back on the trains post Covid), the sector needs to get the basics right; punctuality, convenience, digital connectivity, affordability and cleanliness. The roll-out of digital train control and other technologies can reduce the noise on a very congested system and deliver a positive impact on performance.

Embedded Carbon – Challenge and Opportunity

When you look at the UK Rail Sector, the vast majority of the associated carbon is embedded in what is built and maintained.

Kim Yates, Mott MacDonald

The group moved on to talk about the physical infrastructure of the network. represent an enormous opportunity to better integrate carbon considerations into the planning, construction and maintenance of the UK’s railways. This is vital as the embedded carbon in the assets is the biggest source of emissions associated with the network, far outstripping the operation of services.  Once again participants stressed that this technology is an enabler and can only be exploited if the right data and insight gets into the hands of skilled and knowledgeable individuals in the right parts of organisations.

Digital twins have revolutionized the way that large-scale infrastructure projects are designed, built, and maintained, and are being implemented slowly but surely across the industry.

Nick Niknam, Bentley

People and Process

Its less about the Digital and more about the Transformation.

Adam Collins, Balfour Beatty

This highlights the importance of people and process. The sector already generates a lot of useful data, the challenge is to establish processes that make better use of it right through the asset lifecycle.

A lifecycle perspective shifts the focus to the data we might need over a 40-year period to manage the assets. Given that neither projects, programmes nor governments think on those timescales, the trick has to be to get enough hooks into each 5-year control period to gradually shift day to day practices, operating models and incentives so that the whole sector moves in the right direction.

There is also a challenge to bring together technology and rail sector know-how. The enthusiasm for tackling Net Zero by deploying technology solutions is very high, particularly amongst younger staff. This needs to be aligned to high level engineering and design skills – there are no magic black box solutions. Similarly, many of the innovative start-ups pitching to the sector come from a pure technology background and need help to understand how they can be deployed in the rail sector. Much of this detailed know-how sits with an older cohort, many of whom are within a decade of retirement, increasing the pressure to bring the next generation into the sector. CIHT has a role here in setting out a positive narrative of what rail, as part of a sustainable transport system can do for the country, how it can embrace technology and the fulfilling careers it can provide.

Translating good intentions into delivery

Let’s face it, Net Zero is law, do nothing isn’t an option, so we want to work with our supply chain to do things differently.

Jo Lewington, Network Rail

Finally, the roundtable discussed the nuts and bolts of procurement and delivery. Network Rail published its Environment and Sustainability strategy in September 2020, with the buy-in of all its front-line Regional Managing Directors. It is also part of the Sustainable Rail Executive, working with all the major players to find Net Zero solutions and overcome barriers to their implementation.

The commitment is there but this is new ground for the organisation and it recognises that the challenge now is to translate this Net Zero intent into change on the ground.

Feedback from the supply chain suggested that innovations achieved on major projects can be hard to transfer that into the high-volume/low-margin world of Business as Usual – so more work is needed to incorporate low carbon breakthroughs rapidly into updated standard specifications and designs.

Fundamentally, Network Rail, like all infrastructure client’s, needs to be able to set out its Net Zero requirements consistently. That then must find its way into contracts that ensure carbon impacts are measured and managed. This will create a level playing field on which the supply chain can compete and increasingly collaborate to bring solutions. On that final note many of the participants felt that Alliancing or other forms of outcome based collaborative delivery models that allow risks and reward around innovation to be shared need to become the norm.

Partnership Opportunities

Bentley Systems is a Knowledge Partner of CIHT's Partnerships Network. If you are interested in CIHT's partnership opportunities and the chance to put your brand at the heart of the key discussions, contact Sally Devine at sally.devine@ciht.org.uk or call 07963 934892.