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Heads up: over the last four years there have been "£1.5 billion in efficiencies and counting." That was a message from Susan Millington MBA ChPP FCMI CMgr RPP MAPM of Network Rail at yesterday's 'Shaping the Future through SPEED Industry Partnership Conference (Part 1)'. And the Director of the Rail Investment Centre of Excellence at Network Rail Christian Irwin OBE advised that, looking ahead, the opportunities are so much greater. SPEED is a set of guiding principles for government, infrastructure managers and suppliers to deliver better projects and programmes - that in turn deliver value outcomes to investors and passenger & freight customers. Cav Elithorn the Director of Rail Infrastructure Central at the Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom spoke of the potentially huge prize at stake, but cautioned that the sector has to own its responsibility to the tax payer. This can't be ducked now we've entered Control Period 7, as Network Rail's Capital Delivery Director Tim Walden explained that they would have to be around 10% more efficient than at the end of Control Period 6 (March 2024) just to stand still. Hence the £2.5 billion CP7 capital efficiency challenge and the need for minimum viable product to be at the heart of investment decision making. The journey continues, and so does the SPEED Industry Partnership Conference - Part 2 will be in October.

Trains can move freight up to four times more efficiently than trucks—which means that freight railroads could be a key part of the nation’s solution to climate change. Now, NREL has released ALTRIOS: the world’s first fully integrated, open-source software designed to explore deep #decarbonization of the rail industry. “To build ALTRIOS, we worked with industry partners to answer a fundamental question: How can we decarbonize freight rail in an economically viable way?” said NREL’s Jason Lustbader. Developed in collaboration with BNSF Railway, Southwest Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and The University of Texas at Austin, ALTRIOS will help freight rail operators transition to clean locomotive technologies, and build out the #CleanEnergy infrastructure they need, in the most #CostEffective manner possible. Read more: https://bit.ly/4486ktb

Rail can give back on so many levels. One of them is a LOW HANGING FRUIT in the fight against #climatechange: drastically cutting down emissions per journey by travelling near and mid distance journeys by (speed)train instead of airplane. You don´t need to follow my example - I did not flew since 2011 and switched to 99% plantbased in 2019 (only 10% of all crops on earth are directly eaten by humans, the rest is ... agriculture, biofuel and some materials like for insulations or fashion). Imagine the space to be freed if people would change their diet habbits for 1-2 days a week – think of easily improved diabetis or high bloodpressure and obesity – but thats another posting, another low hanging fruit with the coolest receipts to cure much of it without bad sideeffects). SO WHAT can we do to get y´all on the rails? ... Make it more attractive. TIME is the new true luxury in a world, where recruiters and influencer suggest you might find relaxation with 2 reels a day on insta. ... real solutions: Competition. And better and more variable seats (almost every nation has clever solutions to be adopted by others), better food, better restrooms, maybe even influencer areas with good light. I even remember starcooks prepearing food for some train lines (I did once DVD artworks for one of them for his TV show). Companies are already coming together to provide the pathways for just that. IMAGINE going on a #train would have that romantic spirit again from the times of #MarkTwain - or the #magic of the #Hoghwarts #train. It´s all there. With a dedicated "slow down and live" - Approach where it is possible and gives you QUALITY times back. Not that stressy airport preparation for a little jump of 1 hour flights, without hunting your luggage at the airport or weighting bags. A TRAIN COULD BE A SPA on rails with the right team. Just like a company is driven by the spirit of its team. With the right people you move mountains - or experience a truly comfy journey of a lifetime ... it´s a lot of work, but passionate people to make it happen, are already there. And I´m glad, some of them also give back on other levels hope providing with passion humanitarian aid and supporting good causes from bringing students across Europe ans elsewhere together to distributing relief to disaster regions. REMEMBER your first journey on a train as a kid - it was an adventure. And yet it opened the doors to the world. The cool thing today: WE KNOW already it also helps us as humanity reduce our Emissions-Footprint. Food for thought. Enjoy your journey. #SongOfTheDay: #JOURNEY. BUNT ft. Emma Carn: 545.000+ views: 🎵 ⏯ https://lnkd.in/eg4iH-WZ (on legendary Kontor Records GmbH) (PS: yes the #vintage #vwbully in the video isn´t emission free. But: there´s a cool solution for this too 🤗 https://lnkd.in/eCG2TN6Q ) #travelblog #train #peacetrain #humanitarian #verkehrswende #cutemissions #slowtravel #slowdown #bahnfans #raillive

At Railpen we believe that long-term focused decision making has many advantages that should be carefully exploited. That’s why this is the second of our six investment beliefs. In the next in our series of investment belief videos, we explain how and why Railpen positions itself as a long-term counterparty, leaning into periods of volatility and illiquidity where others might shy away. Watch our video with Richard Moon, which sees Railpen’s Head of Private Markets, answer three key questions about long-term investment https://ow.ly/Rv5s50SrhEc Read about this investment belief on our website (scroll down the page) at https://ow.ly/b3O350SrhEb #RailpenInvestmentBeliefs #LongTermInvesting

This is a bold and encouraging step towards transparency in vertical separation to invite for open access and more rail market entry and investments. The next steps are prime determinants of success. “TRANSNOMICS in Effect”

Consistency in pursuing goals, political commitment and explicit financial guarantees. Those are the three pillars that will ensure rail investments take place in a targeted and efficient manner in pursuit of reaching climate and decarbonisation goals and making rail freight more competitive. According to European Transport Workers' Federation, CER (Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies), and UITP, it is high time the #EU proved its commitment to supporting the sector. #railfreight #railfreightnews #railcargonews

At long last the train has picked the correct engine for revitalization of this critical transport mode which has been fast loosing share to road transport. We need to rebalance the correct modal share between road and rail which at 80/20 is unsustainable and jeopardizes economic growth, regional integration and trade . Indeed what happens next if done right and in time could be transformative

Transport Canada, US DOT and DOE issue joint statement on action to reduce rail-sector emissions – Charged EVs The US and Canada have created a Rail Decarbonization Task Force to explore ways to reduce emissions from the rail sector. According to a joint statement from the US DOT and the Canadian Transport Ministry, “The decarbonization of the rail sector is a crucial component of our global efforts to reduce emissions and meet the https://lnkd.in/gsN9XtJ4

As we head towards Control Period 7 (CP7), Network Rail's 2023 Annual Report makes for interesting reading to learn about where the industry is going and what priorities are for the UK's largest rail infrastructure client: https://buff.ly/48bLPPR

'The rail industry stands on the cusp of a pivotal transformation, driven by the urgent need for sustainability in the face of global environmental challenges.' Really good feature from Global Railway Review on the opportunities and imperative for decarbonisation in rail on the path to net zero. Link: https://lnkd.in/ejDD3F9J The Global Centre Of Rail Excellence is a new, purpose-built facility for world class rail and mobility research, testing and innovation that is currently being developed in South Wales that aims to be critical part of this work over the next few years. GCRE will support the development of next generation rolling stock, infrastructure and cutting-edge new mobility technologies that will provide a range of services unique across the continent. It will become the UK’s first ever net zero in operation railway, supporting the innovations needed to decarbonise the UK and European rail network and, crucially, helping to lower the costs of major infrastructure. You can find out more about the GCRE development at www.gcre.wales or by watching our overview video here: https://lnkd.in/eMVtZHZX #NetZero