SPAIN: The University of Birmingham in the UK is to develop energy-saving concepts for high speed and commuter rolling stock under a reseach agreement signed with national operator RENFE on September 16. The agreement is expected to last three years and was signed in Madrid by RENFE President Teófilo Serrano and Professor Felix Schmid of the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education.

‘We look forward to working closely with RENFE and its Spanish research partners, not only in injecting our own know-how and skills but also by learning from a world-class railway business’, said Schmid. ‘We expect to enlarge the collaboration to other topic areas where we have substantive experience, such as capacity management and condition monitoring’.

RENFE also signed collaboration agreements with eight Spanish universities and research bodies, including faculties in Madrid, Valencia and Bilbao. In the UK, BCRRE is expecting to draw on the resources of its recently-opened hybrid traction laboratory and will also use network modelling tools under development with Atkins.