Application of Digital Technology Award Shortlist

Cognizant & Network Rail

Challenged by service-affecting failures due to ageing infrastructure and resulting disruptions that often lead to passenger-delays, Network Rail (NR) embarked on a transformation journey to re-imagine its asset management. The ‘insight’ product (Patent pending), part of NR’s Intelligent Infrastructure programme, leverages digital technologies to navigate from time-based maintenance to an intelligence-led predict-and-prevent regime. Cognizant is the strategic delivery partner for NR to steer this digital transformation with the aim of reducing service-affecting failures, making 1.8bn passenger journeys safer and more punctual every year. ‘insight’ utilises a robust cloud architecture to liberate asset condition monitoring data and advanced analytics/machine learning techniques to predict asset failures, enabling data-driven decision making. Piloting ‘insight’ demonstrated that it would help maintenance teams save 1.3 million work hours, replacing a lot of paper-based processes and manual analysis that happen today. Reducing service-affecting faults will reduce passenger delays nationally by around 500,000 minutes, improving passenger experience.

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Cordel

In partnership with Network Rail, Great Western Railway and SNC-Lavalin Atkins, Cordel.ai and Angel Trains have installed 3 complete sets of Cordel's Automated LiDAR, Video and Location systems onto Class 165 trains. As GWR operate the trains in normal passenger service, the innovative Cordel technology automatically captures and transmits survey-grade LiDAR point clouds, high-resolution video, and precise location information. Cordel makes the data available through a cloud-based web platform, and deploys post-processing software with visualisation and decision-support tools to provide actionable engineering insights. As an interdisciplinary innovations partnership, we enable the application of Cordel’s digital technology: data and AI to enable costly, time-consuming and boots-on-ballast physical inspections to be replaced by up-to-date focused online information. Beyond the benefits to Network Rail engineers and maintainers; passenger and freight customers can experience direct service improvements from the switch to:
● gathering more data from in-service trains, means fewer specialist monitoring trains are needed, freeing up more paths on the railway for actual customer services to run.
● automated digital inspection of vegetation, clearance & gauging, ballast and electrification equipment, means a quicker turnaround on identifying issues, enabling pain points to be triaged and addressed more efficiently.
● more frequent monitoring, enables more a up-to-date picture of the network to be maintained, creating an efficient baseline for renewals and enhancements, with easier scenario-testing for new freight flows, passenger vehicle cascades, route electrification.

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Evifile

TRANSFORMING ACTIVITY TRACKING TO DELIVER SIGNIFICANT TIME AND EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS ACROSS THE TRANSPENNINE ROUTE UPGRADE. The process of scheduling work and allocating resource on the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU) programme involved manipulation of a spreadsheet known as ‘the racecard’ which held the information for advanced weeks of work to be completed on day and night shifts by various disciplines/teams. This process was lengthy, labour intensive and prone to errors and is common across the wider rail industry. The project team worked in collaboration with our technology partners Asite and eviFile to solve the challenge and transform this outdated process into an efficient digital process. By focusing on eliminating duplication in lower-level daily activity through digitisation a 30% time-saving was achieved in year 1 increasing to a 60% target in the second year. • All work data collected provides a single source of truth for productivity on every shift • Live data is now available across the Alliance and the programme teams: Management, Operations, Commercial, Planning etc. What became evident is that this simple solution can be easily implemented across all rail projects in the UK resulting in multi-million annual cost savings, impacting the whole industry.

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Frankham

The Infrastructure Engineering team at the Frankham Group has achieved significant success in their digital transformation over the past year, resulting in impressive growth and improved service to clients. The team's strategic investment in technology has optimised core infrastructure activities including inspection, monitoring, and design. The team has implemented a form filler application to record inspection data, resulting in a three-fold reduction in report delivery time and significant cost savings. As added value, the team now also incorporates LiDAR scans of assets into reports, providing clients with valuable 3D visualisation data for planning and maintenance purposes. Additionally, point cloud data from measured surveys are now provided in an interactive format at no extra cost, allowing for virtual navigation of worksites from an office environment. The team has also employed augmented reality software, Arki, to enhance project value by providing stakeholders with real-time 3D immersive visualisations, projecting full-scale models into their contextual environments. The team's successful integration of technology and innovation has resulted in a 102% increase in turnover, a 60% increase in staff count, and a 50% increase in profit. Frankham is committed to continuing our digital transformation and delivering exceptional value to clients.

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Konux

Network Rail was looking for a solution that will help in improving the reliability of turnouts and workforce safety on track, while reducing cost and time in the field. The trials began in August 2020 with the goal to demonstrate the capability of KONUX Switch - an AI predictive maintenance system for switches and crossings in asset management and maintenance validation. Clear cost-saving and reliability improvement benefits were demonstrated, with the insights being used to avoid track closure and speed restriction, as well as a potential 20% reduction in delay minutes. Since then the system has been deployed in all five regions, monitoring over 120 S&C within the UK, integrated with other NR systems while new features and use cases are being added continuously. KONUX Switch is already becoming an integral part of many track engineers' daily efforts to improve the safety, capacity, reliability and cost-efficiency of their networks.

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McLaren Applied ltd

With existing connectivity solutions requiring complex installation, cumbersome hardware, and time-consuming maintenance to provide slow, patchy data connections to trains, McLaren Applied’s innovative F1-derived digital technology has already begun to change the industry. McLaren Applied’s 5G Active Antenna hardware and Fleet Connect software combine to the benefit of rail companies and passengers alike. The compact, light-weight unit is not only able to transmit far more quickly and reliably than conventional alternatives, but can do so via multiple networks simultaneously, reassembling data in the cloud en route to its destination to reduce blackspots and provide a consistent connectivity stream for applications such as passenger WiFi and network monitoring transmissions. Already realising remarkable results across the UK rail network, including a 55% increase in customer satisfaction following its installation on Avanti West Coast trains, the digital technology solution has the potential to not only improve passenger and operator experience today, but to future-proof rail connectivity in the face of the coming connectivity revolution.

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Network Rail (Partnered with Indra, CS Group, PKP, Hitachi, Hacon, Thales RCS, Alstom)

Shift2Rail - Travel Companion App  
The Travel Companion is a mobile application developed by Shift2Rail partners to harness opportunities for multimodal, end-to-end transport across Europe. The application is designed to serve as a ‘one-stop shop’ for all the key functionalities passengers expect when using public transport. 
Its development was funded by the European Commission as part of Innovation Programme 4 (IP4), and is backed by Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking. The Network Rail Research and Development team has provided technical resource and other expertise to the development the Travel Companion, andhas been a key partner throughout the programme. For transport operators, the development provides a great opportunity to utilise and analyse data to provide useful information and deliver an optimal service for passengers. This is especially poignant in recent times when the Covid pandemic caused a seismic shift in travelling needs and behaviours, and a need to understand the new demand requirement and travel patterns. The business analytics suite uses descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytical techniques based on passenger and operational data that allows operators to better understand travel habits and trends and service quality, in order to tailor and improve performance and present the information through interactive and visual dashboards. The systems also support a secure Cloud-based platform that manages user data required by transport providers such as profile preferences and to issue bespoke tickets.  
 
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WSP

In a ground-breaking trial, VR, eye-tracking, and emotionsensing technology were combined for the first time to better understand how passengers will navigate the new HS2 station at Old Oak Common. Station designer WSP worked with human-centred design agency MIMA and HS2 Ltd, to combine technologies and improve understanding of how station users will interact with wayfinding components and better serve the quarter of a million passengers expected to use London’s new 14-platform super-hub each day. Through our novel use of technology, we have optimised the passenger experience for all, including vulnerable users and those with diverse needs.

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