BIG WINS FOR NETWORK RAIL AT INNOVATION AWARDS

Wednesday 28 Jun 2006

BIG WINS FOR NETWORK RAIL AT INNOVATION AWARDS

Region & Route:: National

Network Rail has picked up a series of awards and commendations at the Railway Industry Innovation Awards. The Awards, sponsored by The Railway Forum and Modern Railways, saw the company win two award categories and be highly commended in a further three. The Western Accelerated Recovery team scooped the Achievement through Teamwork for its work with area teams in the West Country, Wales & the Marches and the Thames Valley, translating good ideas generated by signallers and track workers into deliverable schemes. More than 70 such ideas are now funded and either in the development or delivery phase, and the performance benefit is beginning to be felt. Network Rail Chief Executive, John Armitt, said: “We are delighted that the hard work of our people has been recognised with these awards. I congratulate every member of the teams involved. This sizable haul of awards is a signal that Network Rail is a creative, innovative and forward-thinking organisation – and on its way to standing out as a world-class infrastructure operator. The second category win came in Best Small-Scale Innovation. Network Rail won this together with Radio-Tech Ltd for the remote rail temperature monitoring system which provides temperature data and warnings via text messaging to assist with management for rail icing or when rail temperatures become critical in hot weather. Network Rail was also highly commended in three categories:

Engineering – for the absolute track geometry technique used to achieve a major change in track quality and durability during installation of new track on the West Coast main line
Information Technology – for the knowledge management initiative giving Network Rail employees access to the right information at the right time
Safety – for the Lookout Operated Warning Systems (LOWS), which replaces the lookout’s horn or flag with signals sent from a handset by a secure radio system to activate warnings to track workers

Notes to editors

The awards were held at the Intisution of Civil Engineers on 27 June 2006

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

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