OVER 200 organisations are expected to attend the Infrarail 2001 exhibition in London. Serving the British railway infrastructure market, leading players in the business will be at the Wembley Exhibition Halls from September 18 to 20.
Infrastructure spending in Britain is running at high levels, with the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, West Coast Route Modernisation and the recent rail renewal programme. Infrarail exhibitors include engineers, equipment and service providers, plant suppliers and signalling specialists. A range of companies provide design, consultancy, maintenance and management services.
Almost 5000 trade visitors attended the last Infrarail show, held in Manchester in 1998. As the market for rail infrastructure products and services has expanded, the exhibition has grown. Moving to Wembley will give an increase in capacity. English Welsh & Scottish Railway is providing display space for on-track plant and rolling stock at Old Oak Common depot, with a shuttle bus link to the exhibition halls.
The exhibition is supported by a programme of half-day seminars on the theme of ’Development in the Railway Industry’. This will address issues including incident and asset management and organising for safety. The seminars are organised by the Transport Board of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in association with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers and the Railway Civil Engineers’ Association.
Integrated with Infrarail is RailPeople 2001, a new event focusing on personnel. Recruitment, staff provision, educational and training organisations will be attending. Infrastructure companies exhibiting are being encouraged to highlight their human resources requirements and activities.
The Rail Industry Training Council will be encouraging students to consider careers in the rail industry, and highlighting opportunities for training. Recruitment agency Vital Resources and MTR Training will be at RailPeople.
Track component suppliers at Infrarail will include Pandrol, displaying its range of track components, Pandrol group member Vortok International, and Harsco Track Technologies.
Rail manufacturer Corus Rail will be announcing the formation of a Modular Systems Division to supply lightweight modular station platforms suitable for both main line and light rail use. Infrarail will see the launch of Alstom’s UK Systems & Infrastructure Business.
Civils, electrification and signalling contractors AMEC and AMEC Spie will be present. Suppliers of maintenance wagons will include Marcroft Engineering and Wabtec Rail. Bailey Rail will be promoting its mechanical and electrical services. Also present will be track maintenance and renewal business GrantRail, and infrastructure maintenance company GTRM.
Thermon supplies heating equipment to prevent track and electrification apparatus freezing in winter. Swedish company Track Warning AB will be displaying its level crossing and track circuit technology.
National Railway Supplies is active in the signalling market, and other companies from this sector include Westinghouse Rail Systems, exhibiting under its new name for the first time.
Cattron-Theimeg will be displaying its remote control products for the railway market. Of interest will be the EC/LO controller, designed to comply with European standards for the safe control of points and locomotives.
Chloride Power Protection will be available to discuss its Traction Supply UPS for signalling (RG 6.01 p421). Phoenix Contact will be displaying its pluggable terminal blocks, extending its range of spring cage connectors. The Flashrail 2+1 lightning protection device will be on display. Entrelec will have its complete range of control and switchgear available for inspection.
Anderston Concrete and Tarmac Precast Concrete will be present. Infrastructure and services company Edmund Nuttall Ltd specialises in box-jacking techniques to drive tunnels beneath railway lines. Aqua Geocomposites will be exhibiting its ground reinforcement technology. Rocol Site Safety Systems will be displaying its range of non-slip surfaces for platforms and footbridges.
Research and testing businesses Serco Railtest and TechForce will be promoting their services. Laser Rail specialises in vehicle-track issues and gauging. Omnicom Engineering will be launching OmniInspector, a train-mounted track inspection camera capable of operating at up to 100 km/h to replace track walking.
SGB Youngman’s Specials Division will be unveiling Link Trolley, designed to work with its Boss Zone 1 access tower. A narrower version of the GRP tower will also be launched. Chieftain Trailers has recently secured 12 orders for its Railtrack-approved range of road-rail trailers for infrastructure work. The company’s latest development is an aggregate trailer that can tip on either side of the track. Specialist equipment hire company A-Plant will be exhibiting.
Hose supplier Pirtek is attending the show. Partner Dimas UK will be promoting petrol, air, hydraulic and electric power cutting tools in conjunction with Arbil, Ashtead Plant Hire, Maxim Power Tools (Scotland) and Rotamag Rail, including the purpose-built Rail-Saw range.
Safetell will be displaying an Eye2Eye ticketing counter, designed to assist the visually and hearing-impaired and less mobile passengers, whilst still giving high-security glass protection to staff. Infrasoft will demonstrate its solvRL route learning software, and introduce solvsighting, a signal layout design application. Spescom will be showing the eB Configuration Management tool, in use on the West Coast Route Modernisation.
The consultancy market will be represented by The Engineering Link, BMT Reliability Consultants, and project managers ForgeTrack among others.
European exhibitors include switch and crossing component maker Schwihag of Switzerland, DISAB Vacuum Technology of Sweden and German measuring equipment supplier Fraunhofer. Trade Partners UK will be staging a networking event for British suppliers to meet European buyers.
Come and meet the
Railway Gazette International
team on Stand 1/628
Organisers
For more details of Infrarail 2001 and RailPeople, contact:
Mack Brooks Exhibitions,Forum Place,Hatfield, Herts, AL10 0RN, Great Britain.
Tel: +44 1707 278200
Fax: +44 1707 278201
www.infrarail.com
