Five start-ups will pitch their technologies at a Lab by Transport for Wales virtual demo day which will be live streamed on September 3. This follows mentoring by business experts at Alt Labs’ facility in Newport. The five companies are: Jnction, developing a multi-modal journey planner and passenger assistant app for passengers with autism and hidden disabilities; Quinean, a low-code machine learning platform that allows domain experts to deploy digital twins, test hypotheses and optimise outcomes at speed; RoboK, efficient AI-based computer vision; Stofl, combining blockchain and low-power WAN; Utility AR, augmented reality applications which allow the user to interact with the real world while accessing existing databases and software systems.
FirstGroup has signed a £300m sustainability-linked revolving credit facility with a group of banks. The interest rate will initial be the Bank of England’s Sterling Overnight Index Average plus 1%, and will then vary according to the group’s leverage and its performance against two sustainability KPIs based on emissions per £m of revenue from rail and bus operations, and the relative growth of its zero-emission bus fleet.
The Align Joint Venture has awarded Keltbray a contract to provide construction services for the first two ventilation shafts and head houses on HS2’s first tunnel drives at Chalfont St Peter and Chalfont St Giles.
Network Rail has awarded the £125m Civils Examinations Framework Agreement for the Scotland Region to Amey Rail. The contract runs for five years with the option to extend for an additional three.
South Western Railway is hosting free ‘Try the Train’ days designed to reassure and educate people who have not travelled by train before, or those who have limited experience on the railway, to ensure it is an accessible mode of transport that everyone feels comfortable using. Community groups can be shown around a station and walked through the process of purchasing a ticket, finding the right platform or obtaining help. Participants have included disadvantaged children from local schools, elderly people, those with disabilities and/or accessibility needs and job or education seekers.
The Go-Ahead Group’s operations emissions reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative as consistent with levels required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. In a climate change strategy published in July, Go-Ahead announced plans for a 75% cut in emissions by 2035, and becoming carbon neutral by 2045.
