A £100,000 RSSB research grant will be shared between three projects including:
• Economic Incentives for Innovation: a comparative study of the rail and aviation industries (University of Leeds, Loughborough University, and Imperial College London)
• Design for Control of Railway Vehicles (University of Salford and Loughborough University)
• Commonality and Standardisation of Processes for Cost-Effective Rolling Stock (Newcastle University, Imperial College London, London Underground, Tata Steel, Scotrail, and Alstom)
In addition, the RSSB and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council will co-fund a further proposal by the University of Huddersfield entitled Enabling the development of lightweight railway bogies through the use of novel technologies to control fatigue life.
The research proposals were developed following the RRUKA's Half Cost Train workshop held at City University in London in July. The event was held at the request of Association of Train Operating Companies, which wanted to initiate a "back to basics" look at train specification and design.
