Reducing testing time and effort when introducing new assets to the railway
Introducing new technology to the operating railway is often challenging and costly.
It can be particularly hard for new entrants to the rail industry, who are not fully aware of the process. This reduces rail’s ability to adopt the full range of suitable new technologies.
By looking at best practice from within and outside the industry, we can identify the actions rail can take to improve testing and validation practices. This will support easier introduction of new technologies.
RSSB and the University of Birmingham did a thorough review of case studies where new technology has been introduced to rail.
It included examples of the introduction of both physical and digital technology at a range of scales.
The recommendations fall into these areas:
- clearly defined operational scenarios and use cases to direct testing
- improved use of virtual testing environments to reduce and focus physical testing
- targeted physical testing to reduce and derisk mainline testing
- improved industry understanding of testing through enhanced knowledge, expertise, and data sharing.
This project has identified actions that industry can take to improve the quality of testing and reduce the time and cost of introducing new technologies to rail.
The actions are outlined in four route maps that show practical steps.
The two priorities identified as next steps are:
- improving virtual test environments to build confidence in virtual testing
- using operational scenarios and use cases to direct testing to reduce the risk of operations and maintenance issues once deployed.