UK: The Department for Transport and Innovate UK have selected 26 projects to share £5m of government First of a Kind funding to support trials of innovative technology for the rail industry.
The programme aims to give new ideas a better chance of being bought by train operators, freight companies and Network Rail.
‘Through this funding, we are building a platform on which innovation can thrive, giving new technologies a chance to succeed and driving economic growth’, Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy said on September 3.
Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, said ’the innovations receiving support through this competition will contribute to a more accessible, safer, and efficient railway system throughout the UK. The competition highlights the importance of collaboration with industry partners and focuses on delivering high-maturity demonstrations, ensuring seamless integration into the existing railway infrastructure.’
| Title | Lead | Project Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Enabled Reporting for Inputs to Electrification Analysis Lifecycle | Furrer+Frey GB | £194 485 | AERIAL uses advanced satellite imagery and AI to automate the detection of railway features, significantly improving planning accuracy, reducing costs and speeding up railway electrification projects. |
| SiteFlow: AI-Powered Access and Workflow Intelligence for Supplier Assurance | Robok | £103 399 | AI-powered platform that monitors supplier access and vehicle flow at rail construction sites, transforming CCTV footage into structured insights and trend summaries to enable site managers to reduce delays, improve planning and support contract assurance across complex multi-stakeholder environments. |
| IntelliPan Network | JR Dynamics | £199 662 | Demonstrating and evaluating an AI-powered system that prevents overhead line dewirements by enabling trains to detect faults and respond automatically. |
| AI-Powered Contingency Plan Intelligence for Rail Operations | Trackbase | £125 584 | Using AI to help automated complex decision-making and improve recovery. |
| CENELEC Lifecycle Artificial Intelligence Manager | Digital Transit | £87 289 | CLAIM will develop an AI tool to improve assurance and efficiency of large projects within the rail industry. It facilitates EN50126 compliance by identifying risks early to help deliver complex railway projects reliably, on time and with efficient project handover. |
| Utilising novel AI technology at the platform-train interface to reduce dwell times and improve performance for Scotland’s Railway | Hack Partners | £129 712 | The system detects crowding at doors and prompts passengers to spread out, helping everyone board faster, improving punctuality and enhancing the overall customer experience. |
| AlightHear | Transport Direction | £196 519 | A smart, sensory guidance system at Ryde Pier to improve safety and wayfinding through dynamic lighting and directional sound. Designed for transport hubs and interchange environments, it improves safety at the platform edge, enhances passenger experience and creates a more intuitive journey in multimodal and unfamiliar settings. |
| Mind the Gap+: True Step-Free Access at the Point of Boarding | Moonbility | £199 743 | Partnering with Avanti West Coast and Northern, the project aims to deliver real-time coach-level access data, helping disabled and pram users board confidently, while supporting staff with clear, actionable information. |
| Yellowline AI: Real-Time Behavioural Nudging Through Platform Video Feeds | Rinicom | £196 521 | AI-powered safety system that uses station cameras and smart audio messages to encourage passengers to stand behind the yellow line. By detecting risky behaviour and responding with timely, human-like announcements, the project helps improve platform safety and creates a more reassuring travel experience. |
| Kinetic Language Operating system for platform safety and access | Anuma Intelligence | £198 199 | KLOS-R is an advanced kinetic language operating system using symbolic motion to enhance real-time platform safety and access. |
| Calyo – 3D Sound+AI Platform Safety System | Calyo | £174 761 | A compact safety system that uses sound and artificial intelligence to detect people entering dangerous areas at stations. The project will demonstrate how this technology can reduce accidents and delays by improving real-time awareness at the platform edge. |
| Deformable SMA platform train interface | Biofoundary Energy | £199 922 | Novel material to build a deformable and low-cost platform train interface for unmanned or remote stations. |
| Edge-AI Guardian: Rapid-fit Intelligent Platform-Train Interface Safety System | Frontiermind AI | £164 625 | Making train boarding safer and faster by projecting coloured signals at the platform edge and automating wheelchair ramps, with a six-month live station trial. |
| Realistic AI Simulations for Employee personal safety | Sixty Learn | £117 997 | RAISE pioneers AI-powered safety training for rail staff, blending lifelike simulations with TikTok-style microlearning accessed via mobile. Staff practice handling real-world personal safety crises with instant personalised feedback. |
| Wide area Aerial Tracking for Crowd & Hazard Detection | Skybound Innovations | £199 253 | WATCH will trial automated drone technology at Cardiff Central station to improve rail safety and explore how drones with AI can integrate to detect trespassers, track obstructions and monitor passenger flow, helping rail personnel respond quickly to incidents and improve public safety. |
| Falcon Outpost | British Transport Police | £199 819 | A rapidly deployable and remotely operated drone-in-a-box to enable BTP to respond swiftly to planned events or incidents with enhanced situational awareness and supporting targeted, intelligence-led deployments without requiring permanent infrastructure. |
| Improving personal safety on the railway with an integrated and real-time platform-end trespass detection and rapid response system | Hack Partners | £130 460 | Trialling an automated safety system with TfL that uses AI and drones to prevent platform-end trespass. The system detects people approaching restricted areas, issues live warnings and deploys a drone to track those who enter unsafe zones. |
| SafeRide5G: Enhancing Rail Safety with AI and Ultra Fast 5G | Integrated Systems Engineering | £198 000 | Using AI and 5G to detect incidents, support real-time alerts and improve passenger safety, combining smart hardware and software to discreetly report issues and help staff respond faster. |
| EMBODY: Immersive VR Training to Tackle Violence Against Women & Girls on the UK Rail Network | Juice Immersive | £199 734 | VR training project empowering rail staff to recognise, respond to and report Violence Against Women & Girls. Co-created with experts and lived experience voices, it uses immersive, interactive scenarios to build confidence, empathy and safer journeys for everyone on the rail network. |
| Low Power Distributed Multi-Sensor Mesh for Long Term Remote Monitoring of Rail Bridge Strike Events | Peak To Peak Measurement Solutions | £193 831 | Real-time automated bridge strike detection using multi-sensors and edge processing for rapid alerts. |
| BridgeGuard | Sensing Feeling | £197 078 | Autonomous sensing system using 3D visual-AI to detect potentially-overheight vehicles approaching low railway bridges. It warns drivers before impact and alerts rail asset managers if strikes occur. |
| Bridge Bouncer | Rasic | £180 121 | Smart roadside warning system that helps stop tall vehicles from crashing into low railway bridges. Using sensors, and messaging it warns drivers in real time. This project will trial the system at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence. |
| BridgeAlert: Low Cost Scalable BLE Beacon Technology For Bridge Clearance Driver Alert System | Space Data Centres | £112 473 | Low bridge early warning system leveraging cost-effective low-power Bluetooth beacon technology with accompanying mobile device app to deliver a scalable, any location system for direct-to-driver alerts on low-bridge routes. System hardware requires no active internet connectivity, GPS, grid power supply, in-cab hardware/systems investment or gantry infrastructure. |
| Immersive Bridge Strike Awareness | CGA Simulation | £156 000 | Immersive Bridge Strike Awareness is a project led by CGA Simulation in collaboration with partners including DriveSense and Merseyrail. IBSA uses immersive virtual reality training to help HGV drivers and operators avoid bridge strikes, understand the consequences if they occur, and embed safe practices like Get Out And Look. |
| Bridge Strikes Guardian | JR Dynamics | £199 681 | Solar-powered, AI-driven multi-sensor system that autonomously detects, structurally analyses and reports on bridge strikes in real time. Requiring no civil works, it delivers instant alerts and diagnostic insights enabling rapid, data-led responses by Network Rail’s Bridge Strike Champions and infrastructure managers |
| Bridge Aware | University of Birmingham | £194 749 | A two-part system to reduce bridge strikes using LiDAR and image recognition to detect out of gauge vehicles and trigger traffic warnings. Detection uses vibration sensors and structural-modelling to assess post-strike safety. |
