Rail Technology Magazine Podcast

In the bustling heart of London, beneath the city's streets, a silent revolution is taking place. Transport for London (TfL) is undertaking an ambitious project to bring mobile coverage to the London Underground, transforming the way commuters stay connected. In a recent episode of the Rail Technology Magazine Podcast, host Peter Johnson sat down with Matt Griffin, Head of Commercial Telecoms at TfL, to delve into the intricacies of this monumental task.

The journey to bring mobile coverage to the tube began back in 2017 with initial tests on the Waterloo and City line. By March 2020, the eastern half of the Jubilee line boasted the first permanent mobile coverage. Fast forward to today, and the project is more than halfway complete, with about a third of the infrastructure already live. Matt, who has been at the helm since the early days, shares insights into the timeline and the progress made so far.

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.

We are joined by the Head of Air Operations at Network Rail, Bradley Sparkes, and National Aerial Survey Specialist, Sean Leahy.

Bradley and Sean offer some fascinating insight into how Network Rail patrols the British railway from the sky, identifying faults on helicopter and drone explorations.

Sean discusses the technology his team uses, meaning they are capable of observing faults that may otherwise go unnoticed while flying at hundreds of feet. He also gives insight into his team’s thermal imaging operations, which identify faults that would escape the naked eye.

Bradley also explains how demand for the Air Operations Team’s services has proliferated, with a 92% increase in callouts for route proofing in recent months, and how they are capable of covering vast expanses of the network so efficiently and thoroughly.

Both Bradley and Sean are excellent guests with incredible stories of observing our rail network from above, and share some brilliant insights about the technology at their disposal.

Chris Gibb is a non executive director of DOHL and was formerly the CEO of Scottish Rail Holdings and COO of Virgin West Coast. He has over 40 years of experience in the rail industry and watched on like the rest of us as Phases 2a and 2b of HS2 were cancelled. 

Chris joins host Peter Johnson on the latest edition of the Rail Technology Magazine podcast to discuss a personal project he has worked on to maximise the UK rail network with only the London-Birmingham high-speed line being constructed.

Chris has formed a plan to make the best use of HS2 and create the maximum benefit for all passengers and freight. He talks about the existing issues which would prevent the rail network from running at maximum capacity once HS2 becomes operational and sets out a roadmap to 2042 which includes proposals to build a “New Northern Line” and achieve maximum efficiency at the lowest cost.

Chris also introduces his concept of an “Italian model”, under which different fleets could run as efficiently as possible on both high-speed and conventional railway network lines. 

With little over five years until the first HS2 services are scheduled to run, Chris believes it is time for a constructive debate and discussion about how best to maximise existing UK rail infrastructure including HS2 Phase 1 to deliver the best outcomes. He recognises that there is currently no other plan to achieve this and with his proposal hopes to start the ball rolling for a crucial discussion.