Publication

PA's Rail Industry Group - Meeting the demands of a rapidly moving industry

Railways around the world are under immense pressure to meet the demands of modern economies – delivering fast, reliable and safe travel economically. Long distance rail networks must compete with air travel for passengers; freight networks need to be flexible and responsive to their customers, often in conflict with scarce network infrastructure; and commuter railways and metro systems must increase the capacity of services to deliver against the transport demands of growing and increasingly congested cities.

Rail is struggling with legacy of the past: assets are capital-intensive and have long lifetimes. Control systems installed today will be in use for up to 30 years and new infrastructure takes years to initiate. Organisations are entrenched – built on years of vertical integration and experience that make efforts to stimulate competition by separating infrastructure from operations difficult; and raising genuine concerns about management of the system as a whole and assuring safety.

However, railways can offer innovative and efficient solutions, especially given the increasing importance of environmentally friendly transport, long security delays at airports, and high-congestion road environments. Historically rail transport has found it hard to compete under pressure from air and road, which offer cheaper and more flexible transport for passengers and freight, but the tide is turning. Costs to the economy and individuals of alternative transport modes mean that rail is starting to return to its earlier ‘glory days’ as the mode of choice. The question still remains as to how to maximise the opportunity for this new impetus for change?