Remote working negatively impacted rail innovation - New Civil Engineer

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The move to virtual meeting in place of face to face meeting had a negative impact on the delivery of innovative ideas on the UK railway network, according to a new survey by the Rail Industry Association (RIA).

The organisation’s third annual Rail Innovation Survey showed that respondents believe the sector is more innovative than when the survey was first conducted in 2019. This year, 62% of respondents said that the industry is “quite, very or extremely innovative”, which is up 12% on two years ago.

However, addition of question about the impact of the pandemic revealed that 56% of respondents felt that Covid-19 restrictions had negatively impacted on planned innovation projects during 2020 and 2021.

One respondent said: “The general construction industry has carried on primarily throughout the pandemic, however it’s taken longer to get innovations through Teams [which] will never be as quick as ‘face to face’.”

Less than a quarter of those surveyed believed that innovation had sped up during the pandemic.

Procurement practices were again identified as having the biggest impact on uptake of innovation in the rail sector. One respondent criticised the industry’s conservative approach when it comes to the risk of innovative products and practices.

Availability of rail funding, testing and trialling facilities and innovation advice were listed as the three “facilities and resources” that have the biggest impact on innovation in rail.

RIA technical director David Clarke said: “Innovation is vitally important for the rail sector – helping ensure the industry continues to provide the best possible services for passengers and freight users, while delivering more cost-effectively, reducing carbon emissions and with less disruption to the public.

“As part of RIA’s Unlocking Innovation programme, we surveyed professionals from across the rail sector, gauging how innovative they believe the industry is. The results give reason to be optimistic, yet it also showed that more work needs to be done, particularly in areas like procurement and rail funding, to ensure rail suppliers have all the tools they need to bring new products and services into the market. Although moving in the right direction, rail professionals still see their industry as less innovative than some others. While it is unclear how objective this assessment is, it suggests that there is more to be done in celebrating and promoting rail industry innovation.

“So, the sector is making progress, but we simply can’t rest on our laurels. At RIA, our Unlocking Innovation Programme, supported by strategic partners Network Rail and UK Rail Research and Innovation Network, continues to bring innovators together and promote the good work of companies across the sector. As we approach 2022, we will continue to support the rail industry in its efforts to deliver state-of-the-art rail services across the UK and overseas.”

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