Funding rail’s future, together
Research short: Several of GB’s principal ROSCOs are partnering with us to co-fund vital research.
By Richard Walker, Deputy Director of Research, RSSB
In a strategic move set to benefit the entire industry, four of GB’s leading rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) have partnered with RSSB Research to co-fund several impactful research projects. This collaboration will foster innovation and lead to reduced costs, improved safety, and enhanced efficiency.
Our research programme is crucial in enabling the rail industry to make improvements at the whole-system level, cutting across organisational interests and barriers. To supplement our government-funded research delivery, we’ve actively sought co-funding—with ROSCOs emerging as key private sector partners.
ROSCOs’ objectives are well-aligned with our programme. They have a long-term decision-making horizon, driven by the need to consider value on investments over the lifecycle of rolling stock. They also need to take a whole-system view, as changes to the infrastructure will affect rolling stock requirements and investment. All this means that they’re ideal partners for our research endeavours.
We’re very grateful for this partnership, which will bring forth a multitude of benefits for the industry. More on those later.
The ROSCO community value this partnership with RSSB, where together we are delivering ground-breaking research supporting the whole of GB rail.
Four of GB’s ambitious, forward-looking ROSCOs have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to co-fund research with us:
Angel Trains
Beacon Rail
Eversholt Rail
Rock Rail.
These ROSCOs aren’t only contributing financially to ground-breaking research. They’re also active stakeholders in shaping the industry’s future. This engagement allows them to influence the direction of specific research projects.
Indeed, in addition to co-funding the research, Angel, Beacon, Eversholt, and Rock are supplying vital expertise, evidence, and data. And we’ve no doubt at all that these contributions will add to the quality of the research outputs.
The research projects our ROSCO partners are co-funding with us cover critical areas for GB’s railway. These include:
enhancing rolling stock suspension to reduce track wear and lower related costs
optimising the use of the electricity network to improve system capacity and enhance train performance
identifying appropriate systems to improve braking reliability under different low-adhesion-related incidents
advancing rolling stock crashworthiness models.
These projects are expected to yield wide-reaching benefits across the industry.
For example, improving rolling stock suspension systems would bring down GB rail costs through reduced track wear, which should lead to lower track access charges for operators. Meanwhile, research into AC electric rolling stock power limitations will enable ROSCOs to make informed procurement decisions and help Network Rail optimise infrastructure usage.
There’s no doubt about it: this partnership is a win-win situation for all stakeholders.
For us, it means we can continue to deliver vital research projects and position rail as a forward-thinking industry, capable of attracting private sector investment into research and development.
For our ROSCO partners, this initiative will bring improved insights into topics that matter to them. Their commitment shows their dedication to innovation and their willingness to invest in rail’s future, positioning Angel, Beacon, Eversholt, and Rock as proactive and supportive players in the industry.
And for the wider rail sector, the partnership will help foster innovation, improve safety, and drive efficiency. In fact, whether you’re an infrastructure manager, an operator, or a supplier, you’ll see the benefits as we release these findings and work towards their implementation.
Stay tuned.
Want to collaborate on our research?
We welcome collaboration from across the industry. Whether you’d like to support our research with expertise or directly co-fund some of it, please reach out.
Get in touch ❯