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Everything that happened on Day One of the RIA Innovation Conference

Our first in-person Innovation Conference since 2019 kicked off today, at the University of Nottingham's DeVere Conference Centre. And it's been a busy day, jam-packed with fascinating keynotes, panels and networking sessions. Here's a look at what Day One had to offer.

Being positive about rail

RIA Chief Executive Darren Caplan opened the Conference, welcoming attendees. Darren began by stressing the need to be positive about the state of the industry, and not to base long-term decisions for the sector on the recent past, particularly as passenger numbers were quickly returning. In the last few weeks, passenger numbers were back to around 80% of pre-pandemic levels.

RIA Technical Director David Clarke then set out the key theme for the Conference: 'Getting ready for Great British Railways'. He detailed the key asks from RIA's newly published Railway Innovation Strategy which sets out what the sector needs to do to become more innovative under GBR. The new report can be found here.

David also drew attention to the Innovation Navigator Self Assessment Tool launched today. The first of three planned stages, this allows innovators to assess their current and desired readiness to innovate in rail and provides advice on how to close any gap.

Attracting a new generation of passenger

Keith Williams, Author of the Williams Rail Review, took to the stage as our first keynote and outlined how the industry faces significant financial challenges which still require Government intervention, while revenues remain reduced. He stressed that the need for rail reform is ever more pressing, not least to attract a future generation of passengers to use the railways.

On the establishment of Great British Railways, he reassured the audience that they have been meeting regularly and discussed similar topics to the six innovation asks in RIA's new Railway Innovation Strategy. He also added that rail freight is a real success story of the pandemic.

Innovation isn't a department, it's a mindset

Next we welcomed David Rowe, Head of Rail Technology, Network Rail. David began by setting how the Network Rail's R&D team is "focused on driving down cost and improving interventions, particularly around asset sustainability." He added that they have huge portfolio, including 7 programmes and over 100 live projects across the full R&D portfolio.

He ended by urging suppliers to share their feedback and engage with the team, as they are currently planning for Control Period 7.

Anita Brown, Head of Innovation and Engagement at Avanti West Coast, was next up to the stage. She shared Avanti's view of innovation, which "isn’t a department, it's a mindset." Looking ahead, they have "started working with schools, communities and now universities to find their future workforce. For example we are working with University of Birmingham and are the first train operating company to be part of UKRRIN."

After a break for a networking lunch, we held a series of workshops covering a wide range of areas, such as how to use RIA's Innovation Navigator and how to engage with Network Rail's R&D programme, Connected Places Catapult and UKRRIN!

A laser focus

Our next speaker was Transport for London's Innovation Director Thomas Ableman. He stressed that at TfL, they are we are "laser-focused" on the Mayor's Transport Strategy target of 80% of journeys being made by public transport or active travel, and 'Vision Zero', no deaths on the London road network.

"It's not always clear how people can iterate and experiment. If we can make some rules for the game we can liberate the 27,000 [employees of TfL] to innovate and engage." For businesses, he encouraged suppliers to contact the TfL Open Innovation Team through the link here.

We then welcomed London North Eastern Railway's (LNER) Danny Gonzalez. "We want to use data better to personalise the customer experience throughout the whole journey" Danny stated.

According to Danny they are constantly trying to find new solutions, using the 'three horizon model' to focus part of the portfolio on those challenges with the potential to make a ten-fold improvement. He also highlighted that they use 'Future Labs' which are designed for companies of all sizes to join and bring their innovative ideas with the next round also involving Northern and South Eastern.

How does rail compare with other sectors?

Next up was Adrian Greaney, Technology Director at Ricardo Automotive & Industrial, who highlighted lessons from the automotive sector. He began by saying that "there has a really positive discussion about the innovation process, being agile and 'failing fast', then moving on".

He added that globally, the population is growing, urbanisation is increasing and that both of these present a significant challenge for the world. Alongside that, there is a demand for more products and services. He said that perhaps the challenge to the ownership model of transport presents a real opportunity for rail and that young people may not want to own their vehicles, but instead look for experiences in life.

How can the supply chain be more innovative?

The penultimate session of the day was a panel discussion with Kirsty Dias from Priestman Goode; Andrew Hawthorn of Capgemini; Matthew Maher from Thales; and Johanna Whiteley from Incremental Solutions.

Each panellist was asked what they would like to see from rail in 2050. Matt argued that "getting that alignment of value and agility, that element of trust and everyone being committed to getting the job done - that's where the real benefit comes from".

Andrew said that he wanted to think about how we can help GBR meet the challenge of running trains more efficiently and wanted to see a greater usage of freight.

Johanna added her personal view of working at Incremental Solutions: "As we are so lean we can quickly refocus our energy to meet the most pressing need."

Kirsty stressed that by 2050, she would like to see 'Mobility as a Service' rolled out here, as it is on the Brightline trains in the USA.

Divergent, Diverse and Determined

And last but by no means least we welcomed Network Rail Director of Industry Partnerships, Digital, Toufic Machnouk who has led the East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP). He shared his key tips for innovation, including "start with first principles" and "innovation starts by being divergent, diverse and determined".

He stressed that ECDP is a role model for how the industry can work together in a GBR context. "It shows that with a clear mission and a simple open boundary environment model that brings the operating model with value provided, you can really unlock immense potential."

RIA recently published a report looking at the learnings of ECDP so far - the report can be found here.

What's in Store for Day Two?

There is lot's planned for Day Two of the Innovation Conference. We will kick things off with a speech from Sir Peter Hendy CBE, Chair of Network Rail followed by a keynote from Howard Mitchell, who leads innovation for the largest infrastructure project in Europe, HS2.

Next up will be a panel on what clients are looking for in innovation, with HS2, TfL, Network Rail and Innovate UK. To close the day we'll hear from Sarah Sharples, Chief Scientific Adviser to the DfT, who will share her view from the heart of the Government's innovation drive.

Throughout the day there will be plenty of time for networking and visiting the exhibition, as well as another round of workshops. Enjoy this evening and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Attendees joined RIC's biggest ever exhibition

We have over 40 organisations exhibiting at the Conference, including Network Rail, UKRRIN, HS2 and RIA Members!

Our 'Stand of the Day' definitely goes to Furrer+Frey who have brought a Lego transport system (pictured at the top).