More than 280 rail industry experts gathered at historic York Racecourse to share innovative solutions tailored to the East of England. Unleashing Innovation: The Eastern event marked the start of a series aimed at fostering direct collaboration and generating new ideas across the UK rail industry.
The Railway Industry Association's (RIA) Unlocking Innovation program aims to help businesses drive much of the innovation and development within the UK rail industry, bringing businesses together to develop new innovation opportunities. The program is supported by his three strategic partners: Network Rail, UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN) and Telent Technology Services.
“We recognize that each region has its own unique challenges,” said Milda Manomaite, director of innovation at RIA. “The aim of this series of events was to hear about the unique challenges facing each of Network Rail’s regional and route operations, as well as other key customers in those regions, and to hear about the unique challenges faced by local suppliers and suppliers across the UK. It's about identifying the challenges and finding solutions to those challenges.”
Speakers at the event in York included Lila Tachtsi, director of engineering and asset management for Network Rail's eastern region; She said: “There's a lot going on around us, and of course there's a lot of uncertainty. There's uncertainty about government, there's change about the climate, there's change in the financial environment, and money is changing significantly. financial control has been significantly tightened.
“But in my opinion, the most exciting change is the change in technology. It's about understanding assets, data, optimizing across assets, and integrating different disciplines to make decisions.”
The 2024 program will consist of a series of five events titled “Unleashing Innovation: Connecting Regions and Creating Opportunities.” Events will be held in each Network Rail region to examine the region's key challenges and encourage the industry to come up with innovative new ideas and products to answer them. The RIA's Innovation Conference, held in Newport on March 26-27, served as a Welsh & Western event, with the first standalone Unlock Innovation event held in York.
Following the success of 'Unlocking Innovation' in the Eastern region, the next event will be held in London on June 12th, where Network Rail Southern will take on the challenge of supply chain solutions. Click here to register for the next event.
Click here to read the full report of the event in York.
