By Rachel Eade MBE, FRSA, Supply Chain Lead at the Birmingham Centre of Rail Research and Education. Resilience has become a much used word in many contexts in the current pandemic be it, personal resilience, business resilience, NHS resilience or supply chain resilience. But what is a resilient business? “One that is able to … Continue reading “Resilience is key for UK businesses post-Brexit”
Author: Karminder Johal
Welcome to the new home of BCRRE
Alex Burrows Director of BCRRE shares his thoughts on the new building and what we aim to achieve. We are delighted to share the news that our new purpose-built railway centre designed to deliver specialist research in railway systems engineering has opened on campus at the University of Birmingham. Our new home provides us with … Continue reading “Welcome to the new home of BCRRE”
HydroFLEX: decarbonisation and innovation
Alex Burrows, Director of BCRRE, comments on Hydrogen-based transport, the decarbonisation agenda and the value of collaboration to realise and prove innovation. Earlier this week we successfully took HydroFLEX, the UK’s first hydrogen train, onto the mainline railway – the first run by a hydrogen-powered train on Network Rail infrastructure. The HydroFLEX project is a … Continue reading “HydroFLEX: decarbonisation and innovation”
Education and ambiguity
“His priority seemed to be not to teach them what he knew but rather to impress upon them that nothing […] was foolproof.” [Harry on Firenze’s Teaching, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]. Dr Holly Foss talks about the future of education and how ambiguity and the unknown is a necessity for our … Continue reading “Education and ambiguity”
The railway is full; how can we increase its capacity?
Mohamed Samra, Research Fellow in BCRRE, introduces how Moving Block and Virtual Coupling gives us the opportunity to increase the capacity of the railway. Rail transport is already an efficient mode of transport that brings great economic, social, and environmental benefits. The railways around the world are facing growing demand to transport more people and … Continue reading “The railway is full; how can we increase its capacity?”
The value of collaboration in innovation
Dr Jenny Illingsworth is Deputy Director of BCRRE and spent many years in product development and product management in the manufacturing industry before she joined the University of Birmingham. She shares some of her thoughts around the benefits of working together. I’ve found, over my career – which is longer than I care to think … Continue reading “The value of collaboration in innovation”
Distance Learning at BCRRE: The Digital Platform
Zena Green, a Teaching Fellow (International Programmes) talks about the shift to the digital platform when it comes to teaching and what this entails. When I raised the possibility of creating a digital version of BCRRE’s MSc courses in the autumn of 2019, nobody could have guessed that six months later we would be discussing … Continue reading “Distance Learning at BCRRE: The Digital Platform”
Automating data into useful information to support decision-making
Dr Chris Morris answers our questions on the new Network Rail Acumen Platform Docker, to which he and PhD student, Richard Horridge, contributed heavily on software development. Both provided consultancy on appropriate technologies to choose. What’s the project? It’s known as the Network Rail Acumen Platform Docker. It’s a real-time information tool for signallers and … Continue reading “Automating data into useful information to support decision-making”
Stay Connected with Digi Rail
Alec Gillham, Business Engagement Manager with the Digi-Rail project, outlines why it’s important to stay connected as we emerge out of the Covid-19 lockdown, and how SMEs in the Midlands region can take advantage. Here in the Digi-Rail team we have been making efforts to keep in touch with the SME community so we can … Continue reading “Stay Connected with Digi Rail”
Sustainability Reporting in the Field of High-Speed Railways: Towards a Unified Framework
Dr Labib Azzouz talks about sustainability reporting in the field of high-speed railways and the related research at BCRRE. High-speed railways (HSRs) are often bracketed with sustainability in the transportation literature; they are capable of meeting many individuals’ and societies’ mobility needs in a safe, clean, reliable, efficient, and environmental-friendly manner (Leboeuf, 2018). Sustainability reporting … Continue reading “Sustainability Reporting in the Field of High-Speed Railways: Towards a Unified Framework”