Rolling stock
The maintenance and financing of rolling stock for Britain’s mainline railways is valued at £1.8bn/year (approximately 15% of the total railway operating cost).
The passenger fleet consists of 64 classes with 12,000 vehicles and an average age of 17.3 years, but new trains are nearly always in the pipeline, such as stock for Thameslink, Crossrail and the InterCity Express Programme (IEP).
Train operators lease rolling stock from dedicated rolling stock leasing companies (ROSCOs) which form the customer base that specifies requirements from the supply chain. The rolling stock topic area is concerned with improving the performance of rail vehicles and in the context of accidents, the protection and management of people. This includes human factors issues such as design of the man/machine interface for passengers as well as train crew.
Research on environmental and performance issues is also included where relevant.
Rolling stock
Challenges affecting rolling stock include:
- improving the performance of rail vehicles and in the context of accidents, the protection and management of people
- agreeing the right standards for industry to share concerning aspects of vehicle design, construction and maintenance associated with structures, wheels and axles, brakes, draw gear and couplings, fire resistance, derailment risk, gauge, cab design and interior environment (air quality, lighting, noise and vibration), visibility and audibility, train safety systems, doors and windows, emc issues and data recorders. There is also consideration for the arrangements for vehicle acceptance, maintenance and testing together with the supply of safety critical products and services
- managing the interfaces between rolling stock and other performance-critical areas such as infrastructure, control, command and signalling, structures and energy
- creating the right strategies to improve the way rolling stock works as a whole in relation to the whole rail system and where trains can contribute to a railway costing less money and carbon but performing with higher capacity and better customer satisfaction.
Rolling stock
We can help you through:
- sharing cross-industry research and development specifically on rolling stock matters
- strategy building through the Technical Strategy Leadership Group (TSLG) (included rolling stock)
- delivering standards – technical expertise on rolling stock matters.