This case study was sourced from the University of Hull.
A partnership between the University of Hull’s Logistics Institute, Lampada Digital Solutions and Network Rail has led to the implementation of a range of solutions to improve efficiency, reduce emissions and allow the rail industry to compete effectively with the less environmentally friendly but more dynamic road freight industry.
The Logistics Institute started developing the first rail solution, the NR+ a digital platform for rail planning information, in 2017. It received funding from the Department of Transport in 2019 to further develop the platform. In 2021, the Institute received funding to develop the Railfreight Energy and Emissions Calculator (REEC), working with Freightliner, one of the largest rail freight operating companies in the UK and Aether, a technical specialist in emissions analysis.
“We could have just digitised the existing tables,” says Rail Solutions Lead, Barrie Louw, “but we wanted to create something really fit for the future.”
In 2022, the rail solutions built in the Logistics Institute were moved to University of Hull owned subsidiary Lampada Digital Solutions to be further commercialised and developed. Lampada has managed all the software-related services for the new rail solutions since 2022, including software development and licensing.
In 2023, Lampada won a Network Rail tender to develop a digital platform to maintain and use the Digital Freight Loads Books, known as DFLB. This is a formal source that determines the maximum weight and length of specific freight train configurations at any point on the rail network. DFLB represents a major step forward in modernising the way that Network Rail manages data required for rail freight planning. There are currently 600 active users of DFLB in Network Rail and across the freight operating companies.
University of Hull tools helped Freightliner to radically restructure their transportation of stone from quarries in the Mendips to the Greater London area. The system allowed them to calculate emissions, fuel usage and run times – generating recommendations that allowed significant journey time reductions of over an hour, as well as less time spent idling. Longer trains now transport more goods over fewer days, freeing up trains to run elsewhere.
The application of the rail solutions were recognised at the Rail Freight Group Awards. Freightliner won the ‘Rail Freight Project of the Year’ award for the Mendips major timetable restructuring project, which used REEC to perform the required analysis. The team also won the ‘Sustainability and Safety’ award, in recognition of working in partnership with the Logistics Institute to develop the REEC solution.
Network Rail and Lampada have most recently won the ‘Rail Team of the Year’ category at the annual Rail Staff Award, in recognition of work to develop the latest product, the Digital Freight Load Books (DFLB).
Taken together, the digital solutions developed in partnership with Network Rail and Freightliner make rail freight faster to react and more dynamic, and bring the potential for greater reliability, aiding the industry’s competitiveness.
