Paul Maynard MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, visited the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) to meet the Centre’s leading digital railway experts and see the cutting-edge technology in the Centre’s rail labs.
With responsibility for major railway projects and growth; infrastructure, safety and security; passenger services; and integrated delivery and accessibility, the minister learned of the difference the Centre’s research was having to the future of rail innovations.
Learning of the Centre’s influence both nationally and internationally, the Rail Minister commented, ‘You know you are doing something right when you have foreign visitors coming here to learn from you’.
Professor Clive Roberts, Director of BCRRE, said, ‘It was a pleasure to demonstrate our research and how it is making a tangible difference to society to the minister today.
‘We are leading the railway revolution; we are digitally connecting trains, improving tracks and infrastructure, and are developing new export opportunities.’
Across the world new railways are being constructed, with pioneering projects in Singapore, China and the UK. However, our existing railways are under increasing pressure, as passenger numbers increase and ageing infrastructure buckles under the strain.
The Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) are tackling these issues directly to develop the railways of the future. The Centre’s world-class research is having impact across the globe, revolutionising the railway as a safe, fast, high capacity and environmentally and customer friendly transport mode.