Rail Technology Magazine Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Jon Hill and Ben Parrish from Genetec join the latest episode of the Rail Technology Magazine Podcast. The pair explain the current inefficiencies in the rail industry when it comes to retrieving security footage and discuss Genetec’s Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS), Clearance, which helps to streamline the process.

Jon explains how the manual method of sharing footage on DVDs and USBs presents serious security issues, while Ben discusses the challenge presented by having a 30-day window to respond to subject access requests, given current inefficiencies.

The pair discuss how Clearance has helped operators such as Scotrail to communicate better internally and increase efficiency when handling video requests. They present Clearance as a transformative solution for the rail industry, improving security operations and efficiency while complying with data and compliance regulations.

Railway Industry Association (RIA) Chief Executive Darren Caplan joins the latest episode of the Rail Technology Magazine Podcast. 

Darren discusses the future of the UK’s rail industry under the new Labour Government, identifying a certain amount of continuity from the previous Government, including plans for continued devolution and the establishment of Great British Railways.

Darren also stresses the importance of incentivising increased passenger numbers and revenue growth, despite a recent recommendation by the National Audit Office that the Department of Transport may have to dissuade people to travel by rail.

He presents his views on the capacity issues presented by the cancellation of the Northern leg of HS2 and how the new Government must act quickly and decisively to prevent serious capacity problems in 5 to 10 years’ time.

Darren also shows optimism for the future of the rail industry given positive global trends, and emphasises the crucial role that the sector has to play in achieving decarbonisation targets.

The needs of customers and the industry at large forms the heart of this debate, as the panel discuss where ensuring the industry needs are in sync with the passengers needs. Of course, to deliver on these improvements, requires budget – And the panel produce a lively debate on where and how spending should be prioritised in a time of restricted budgets and a stiff economic climate.

Panellists on this debate are;

James Corker, Rail Sector Director, Skanska UK PLC

Paul Harwood, Programme Director, GBRTT

Elena Stebbings, Project Director, Mott MacDonald

Andrew Inskip, Senior Estimator, Severfield PLC

Join us in our first leaders debate from TransCity Rail North 2023, brought to you by Mott MacDonald,  where our panellists discuss how putting passengers first can reframe the conversation for the North and deliver better outcomes for both the industry and the passengers
Panellists on this debate are;

Karen Heppenstall, Head of Rail, Midlands Connect

Tricia Williams, Chief Operating Officer, Northern Trains

Darren Oldham, Rail and Road Director, Transport for the North

Ken Norbury, Transportation Unit General Manager, Mott MacDonald

Jessica Patterson, Buildings & Cities Social Outcomes Lead, Mott MacDonald

In the final episode of our TCR South 2023 Leaders Debate series, we take a look at one of the hottest topics – AI Technology

Digitising the railway, complex route networks, tight timetables and growing passenger numbers, IoT and AI artificial will play a major role in the future of the rail industry. This discussion covers all of the major talking points on how AI will affect and eventually change rail.

Panellists on this debate are;

Brad Smith Head of Public & Passenger Safety, Network Rail

Vaibhav Puri, Director Future Labs, Rail Safety & Standards Board

Danny Gonzalez, Digital Experience Transformation Director, GBRTT

In episode three of our TCR South 2023 Leaders Debate series, the ambitious Southern Integrated Delivery takes centre stage.

The debate looks at the southern regions huge £9 billion renewals programme and the trailblazing alliance that has been brought together to achieve it.

The detailed conversation looks at how it was formed, its approach and the opportunities across the whole of the region that the programme aims to deliver. 

Panellists on this debate are;

• Tim Coucher, Alliance Director, Network Rail 
• Sian Thomas, Director of Engineering and Asset Management, Southern Region, Network Rail
• Paul Jones, Operations Director, VolkerRail
• Will Rule, Ecosystem Lead, SRE (Avista Strategy)

In episode two of our TCR South 2023, Leaders Debate series, we explore collaboration and what needs to be done within the industry to adopt new solutions.

The debate, brought to you by LNER was titled “How do we encourage industry collaboration and the spread and adoption of new solutions to cross-industry challenges”

It touches upon the need for an industry so used to working in silo’s to begin working together to push forward innovation, especially in the space of new technologies. Buit also, given the challenges that exist from policy, cost and budget across the rail industry, this debate asks if the time is now to overcome them together.

Panellists on this debate are;

• Milda Manomaityte, Innovation Director, Railway Industry Association
• Mark Moaby, Acting Chief Digital and Innovation Officer, LNER
• Alicia Andrews, Commercial Director, Southeastern Railway

How does rail manage in a world where every resource comes at a premium? How does it improve and drive changes in the way it does things?

These are questions posed in the first Leaders Debate at this year’s Trans City Rail South event; In an era of scarce resources, where does the rail industry focus efforts to modernise and drive productivity? – Brought to you by Arup.

Guests for the panel discussion included;

·         Chris Myers, Associate Director Digital Services, Arup

·         Phil Harrison, Director, Arup

·         Rubina Greenwood, Senior Programme Manager, Future Command, Control & Signalling, Network Rail

·         Martin Fenner, Business Development Director, Tilt Consulting

The panel discussed how the industry is moving at a fast pace, changing how data is collected and evolving ways of working to suit the new technologies that rail is presented with.

This episode, with four of the industry leaders within the sector, explores through a lively panel discussion how exactly they tackle these changes and how to prioritise future ambitions.

This is the first of the TCR South 2023 Leaders debate series, which was held at the end of September, in London.

In this episode of the Rail Technology Magazine Podcast, we take a look back at this years TransCity Rail South event, review some of the key speeches and discussions with highlights from Tim Walden, Rob Thomas, Rubina Greenwood.

Collaboration, technological advances, digital evolution and capital investment were key themes discussed over the one-day event, held in the centre of London.

Climate change and how the rail industry is tackling it, is a key question which the industry is needing to confront. But as we look towards an unpredictable future, rail is beginning to get ahead of the challenge with its continued technological advance.

Network Rail is at the forefront of this, and in this episode of Rail Technology Magazine, we chat with Mona Silhota, Technical Head of Drainage and Lineside for Network Rail as well as Michael Brown, Head of Delivery for Intelligent Infrastructure at Network Rail.

Both of them discuss how they are combatting challenges, not only with climate change but also with maintenance and asset management and the role that ever-improving technology and data modelling plays in predicting the world around us.

There is also discussion on Network Rail’s Intelligent Infrastructure and how it is utilising data to turn reactivity into proactivity.