Adaptable Carriage

Traffic growth and congestion acts as a brake on economic growth, as well as exacerbating climate and health concerns in our towns and cities. Solving these issues in a sustainable manner requires best use of all available modes of transport. The railways should play a much greater role for movement of passengers and freight (particularly the rapid growth in ecommerce deliveries into urban areas), but the inflexible nature of today's rolling stock hinders the ability of the train operators to respond. Hence passenger trains may be overcrowded during the rush hour, but grossly under-utilised at other times of the day and night; holiday seasons create major logistical challenges due to lack of space for baggage; those with cycles and wheelchairs may struggle to find space on the train; and despite the exponential growth in white van traffic, the ability for parcel carriers to exploit spare capacity on passenger trains (as BR previously operated through its Red Star service) is constrained by any space for roll cages. To address these various challenges, 42 Technology has developed the Adaptable Carriage, a unique train passenger seat mounting system, which enables seats to be automatically folded and slid along the carriage sides. The technology behind the concept has been developed through funding by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), as a winner of their “Tomorrow’s Train Design Today” Competition. Developed with input from stakeholder across the rail and logistics industries, a full-sized, prototype module of working Adaptable Carriage seating was publicly demonstrated at Railtex 2017 to prove technical feasibility. Analysis has shown that the UK rail industry could generate over £20Bn, and reduce carbon emissions by over 120 MTCO2e, per year though moving goods by excess passenger seat capacity instead of road. City centre to city centre journeys are typically 40% quicker by rail than road, and provide direct access to retailers and customers. To progress towards realising this opportunity, Innovate UK is helping to de-risk the first installation of the technology in a train carriage. Following successful testing and demonstration of the carriage, the opportunity exists to pilot the technology through synergies with the Flexible Freight programme being promoted by the rail industry Technical Strategy Leadership Group (TSLG).