The refurbishment of the Avanti West Coast Pendolino fleet has won the Major Project prize at the 2023 Railway Innovation Awards.
The awards, the longest standing scheme in the industry, are organised by the Modern Railways Fourth Friday Club in partnership with the Railway Industry Association. Prizes were awarded in eight categories at a lunchtime ceremony held at the Marriott Grosvenor Square in London 23 June, with trophies for the winners and certificates for Highly Commended entries. The keynote speech was given by Southeastern’s Managing Director Steve White and Commercial Director Alicia Andrews, who highlighted the need for innovation driven by customer insight and colleague feedback.
The Pendolino refurbishment is the UK’s biggest ever train upgrade. Delivered by Avanti in partnership with Alstom and Angel Trains, it includes a number of innovative features both in the upgrades it offers and the way it is being delivered. A Highly Commended certificate was awarded for the innovations delivered during completion of the Crossrail project.
A full write-up of the awards will appear in the Rail Innovation feature in the August 2023 issue of Modern Railways. The full list of winners is below.
Major Project
Winner: Pendolino Refurbishment – Avanti West Coast
Highly Commended: Crossrail Completion – Bechtel/Transcend/Crossrail
Cross-Industry Partnership
Winner: Passenger Assist Programme – Rail Delivery Group
Highly Commended: LIDAR Point Cloud Data Capture – Cordel; Trains with Brains – Transmission Dynamics; Possession Intelligence Forecast – EviFile and Frazer-Nash
Engineering and Safety
Winner: In Service Infrastructure Monitoring – Northern
Highly Commended: Geofencing – Connected Places Catapult and Network Rail; Digital Manufacturing – DB ESG and Angel Trains; Strategy Engineering and Asset Management System - Cognizant
Environment and Sustainability
Winner: I Came By Train – Trainline
Highly Commended: Improving Environmental and Sustainability Performance – Greater Anglia; Independently Powered EMU – Stadler; Technocrete – Transpennine Route Upgrade East of Leeds
Operations and Performance
Winner: Manchester Recovery Task Force – Steer
Highly Commended: Crew Displacement Management Tool – MTR Elizabeth line & CPC Systems; Digital Coach Signposts – LNER; Immersive Reality Driver Training – Northern
Passenger Experience
Winner: CIS Enhancements – Southeastern
Highly Commended: Request to Stop – HITRANS; Accessible Travel Simulation – Northern
People, Skills and Diversity
Winner: Track’a’thon – South Western Railway
Highly Commended: Travel Companion – Avanti West Coast; Journey into Rail – Auctus Management Group; Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce – Southeastern
Small Scale Project
Winner: Voice of the Customer Report – Chiltern Railways
Highly Commended: Konux Switch – Konux; State of the Railway Compiler – Network Rail and Realtime Trains
