The University of Huddersfield welcomed Lord Patrick McLoughlin to its prestigious Institute of Railway Research, a decade on from the then Secretary of State for Transport officiating at its grand opening.
Lord McLoughlin, now chair of regional body Transport for the North (TfN), was joined by their strategy director and deputy chief executive, Katie Day, for a tour of the Institute (IRR), which was founded to carry out leading-edge railway research and develop innovations that impact the safety, performance and environmental sustainability of the industry.
Lord McLoughlin was invited to return by Prof Paul Allen, director of the IRR, to witness the progress of the institute and the development of its world-class test facilities over the past 11 years, and to discuss alongside Katie Day, how TfN and the university can work more closely to deliver against a transport strategy to improve connectivity, social mobility and drive growth in the region.
During their tour, Lord McLoughlin and Ms Day took part in live demonstrations involving THOMoS, a £1.2 million state-of-the-art Train Hi-fidelity On-board Motion Simulator capable of reproducing the on-board motions and sensations of a train journey.
In addition, they witnessed the IRR’s latest automation-based research in the application of robots for carrying out refuelling and maintenance activities on a mock-up of a railway vehicle, within its Smart Rolling Stock Maintenance Research Facility.
The tour group also visited the Institute’s HAROLD full-scale railway roller rig and the Panther, a pantograph and overhead line dynamics test rig.
Prof Allen said: “We were delighted to welcome Lord McLoughlin just over a decade after he officially opened the institute in 2013.
“It was a great chance for us to show the progress in our test facilities and capabilities over the past 11 years and strengthen our relationship with TfN.
“Supplemented by Katie Day’s insightful knowledge of transport strategy, we were able to better understand the region’s key transport priorities, identify synergies with our academics’ expertise and take the first step in building much closer collaboration between our two organisations.”
To draw the day to a close, the university’s Vice Chancellor Prof Bob Cryan joined the group for presentations and roundtable discussions, identifying priority areas for future collaboration that are planned to be commenced in the New Year.
The IRR has received £14m of investment in state-of-the-art full scale test facilities and works closely with industry to deliver impactful research for a safer, more reliable and cost-efficient low carbon railway.
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