Lee Chapman and colleagues from Civil Engineering have been successful in obtaining £109k from FP7 as part of the LivingRail (Planning rail towards 2050) project.

Railway track

The study will develop scenarios on the state of living style, cultures, mobility and economic activities in Europe by 2050 and explore a vision on the future role of the environmentally friendly, electrified railways within them. The scenarios and visions are detailed by trends in society, policy, economics, spatial planning, urban development, technology and transport sector operations to gain profound understanding of the sector interrelations. With the help of these detailed assessments the project will eventually elaborate a pathway or “railmap” to approach the 2050 vision from today’s situation. The funding is particularly timely due to the recent £9bn railway investment announced by coalition in British railways which will see a number of rail-lines electrified over the next decade.