We’ve developed smart technology to track freight wagons on our railway. These ‘intelligent wagons’ monitor wagon condition – keeping your journeys smoother and our railway safer.
Making our railway safer
We want to make the wagons of freight trains even better – ultimately cutting delays to train journeys caused by freight.
There are already strict rules and regulations keeping trains running safely on our railway, including around the care of wagons. For example, all wagons need regular maintenance checks.
But we’ve gone further and worked with our industry partner the Rail Safety and Standards Board and private companies to adapt a special type of tech for freight trains. The tech monitors wagon conditions and sends important data to maintenance teams and the driver.
This tech has already been used on passenger trains for a while, and we’re now adapting it for freight trains, which often run on the same lines as your services. Intelligent wagons can help prevent faults with freight trains, reducing the number of incidents and delays to passenger trains.
Smart tech
The tech works by having lots of sensors on each wagon. These sensors feed into a detection box, sending information to the driver and the freight operating company’s maintenance team.
The system can detect problems like overloaded or unevenly loaded wagons, hot brakes, or locked axles. This helps keep the train and our railway safer by allowing the driver and the freight company to act quickly and reduce the chances of a fault causing a delay.
The sensors also send an alert when a wagon needs maintenance. This helps to save freight train companies time, resources and money by making maintenance checks more efficient.
Successful trials
We held a successful event in February to showcase intelligent wagons. Many colleagues from the freight sector attended the event, along with several railway safety organisations. We’re now working freight operating companies to fit this technology onto freight trains.
Peter Williams, an operations and safety manager, said: “The technology has the potential to reduce the consequences when an incident occurs and it enables a fresh approach to freight train maintenance. Most importantly of all, it will enhance customers experience for both freight and passengers.”
