Connecting with the Connected Leaders

Dr Jenny Illingsworth, Centre Manager of BCRRE provides a summary of the connected leaders programme delivered on Thursday 9th February 2023 and information on how your business could benefit from this very programme or something tailored speacifically for your needs. The Connected Leaders programme is all about the network crucial to a forward-looking, collaborative rail … Continue reading “Connecting with the Connected Leaders”

BCRRE hands over Rail Alliance baton to Rail Business Daily Community

Alex Burrows, Director of Enterprise and Innovation, outlines the move of Rail Alliance into the Rail Business Daily community. Yesterday (Tuesday 14 December), we made the announcement to the Rail Alliance Community’s membership at the Rail Alliance Christmas event and AGM, and then to the wider industry and stakeholders, that the University of Birmingham is … Continue reading “BCRRE hands over Rail Alliance baton to Rail Business Daily Community”

Challenges and opportunities, teaching online during a global pandemic

Zena Green, Teaching Fellow in International Programmes, and Dr Holly Foss, BCRRE Director of Education, comment on their experiences in dealing with teaching under Covid-19 constraints. This blog is extracted from an article which is published in this month’s International Rail Journal. The global Covid-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact our lives and has … Continue reading “Challenges and opportunities, teaching online during a global pandemic”

What did it take to get HydroFLEX onto the mainline?

Charles Calvert, PhD student in the BCRRE Power and Traction research group and Lead Systems Engineer for HydroFLEX takes us through the history of HydroFLEX and some of the key technical challenges the team resolved in order to take the train successfully onto the UK mainline – the first Hydrogen train ever to run on … Continue reading “What did it take to get HydroFLEX onto the mainline?”

The end of rail franchising: what will replace it?

Alex Burrows comments on Monday’s announcement about the end of rail franchising and sets out a series of challenges which we, here in BCRRE and the Rail Alliance, would like to see considered,  coming out of this new approach. In news that will have not come as a shock to most readers, the UK Government … Continue reading “The end of rail franchising: what will replace it?”

How can we innovate our way out of recession?

Steve Mills, Senior Industrial Fellow, will be speaking about innovation and the funding landscape at our Stay Connected round-table event on 25th June. In today’s blog he outlines the opportunity our current situation offers and gives tips on maximising your chances of success. As our colleague, Rachel Eade, mentioned in her earlier blog, Innovation as … Continue reading “How can we innovate our way out of recession?”

‘DriveSmart’: Humans, not machines, create meaning

  Dr Ning Zhao, Research Fellow with BCRRE and an expert in train control, explains about how to use DriveSmart to enhance train operation performance. Rail systems use a considerable amount of energy in day-to-day operations, with the whole-life cost of the energy used to operate a train potentially amounting to about as much as … Continue reading “‘DriveSmart’: Humans, not machines, create meaning”

Destination Decarbonisation Day 2: Research and Technology

Following yesterday’s first session of our 3-day Destination Decarbonisation event, which covered the big-picture of policy, funding, demand for decarbonisation technologies, today’s session was all about research and the BCRRE Centre of Excellence in Rail Decarbonisation. It was my pleasure to introduce this Centre of Excellence and its six themes encompassing energy, efficiency, infrastructure and … Continue reading “Destination Decarbonisation Day 2: Research and Technology”

Innovation and the UK rail industry

Alex Burrows, Director of BCRRE, comments about the appetite for innovation in the rail industry and the challenge faced in converting ideas into realisation. Here at BCRRE, we were extremely interested to see the findings of the RIA Innovation Survey published yesterday.  To start with, all respondents (of which there were around 300) said that … Continue reading “Innovation and the UK rail industry”

Innovation as part of business recovery

Rachel Eade MBE, FRSA, Supply Chain Lead for BCRRE and Senior Technical Officer with the Digi-Rail project, finishes off her week sharing her thoughts on some of the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown on the SME community. Innovation as part of business recovery Developing new products and processes is the lifeblood of many businesses: adapt, … Continue reading “Innovation as part of business recovery”