Top gong for Northern at Railway Innovation Awards

Colleagues from Northern picked up the award for ‘in service infrastructure monitoring’ in the Engineering and Safety category in front of industry peers at the ceremony yesterday (Friday 23 June).

The project, which was first announced in 2022, drew fresh attention earlier this month when Northern announced it was hoping to equip as many as 40 trains in its fleet with the kit required to make them into ‘Data Hoovers’ – transforming how the rail network is maintained.

Collecting the award, Marc Silverwood, Northern’s on train system manager, said: “We’re thrilled to be recognised for our work on the Intelligent Trains programme.

“Northern has always sought ways to do things smarter, safer and more efficient.

“We only need 40 of our fleet of 335 trains to be fitted with this technology to regularly sweep our entire network - enabling maintenance issues to be identified and repairs scheduled whilst they are within operational safety standards.”

Northern is in talks with Network Rail to secure funding for the Intelligent Trains programme, which it estimates would save tens of thousands of ‘delay minutes’ caused by urgent, unscheduled maintenance each year.

In their category, Northern was nominated alongside:

• DB ESG and Angel Trains
• Connected Places Capital and Network Rail
• Cognizant and Network Rai.

The Railway Innovation Awards were founded in 1998 to celebrate the brightest ideas in the industry. For more information, visit: www.modernrailways.com/railway-innovation-awards 

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.