PARTNERSHIP TO IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

STARTING POINTS:

• PASSENGERS NEED A MORE ACCESSIBLE RAILWAY.

To support growing demand, provide better customer facilities and improve accessibility, train operator Southeastern is running a procurement process for a new (or upgraded) fleet of trains to deliver their commuter-style Metro services. Southeastern knew that simply getting new trains will not fix the historic issues they face across the railway. So Cordel is therefore helping Southeastern to optimise the accessibility of these trains, by delivering a UK-first deployment of the end-to-end Cordel automated pipeline.

• CORDEL HAS ESTABLISHED TECHNOLOGY, WITH NETWORK RAIL APPROVALS.

Cordel is an innovative SME, providing infrastructure measurement services for international railways. Cordel’s accurate location (to NR/L2/TRK/3100), gauging (to NR/L2/TRK/3240) and electrification outputs (to NR/L2/ELP/27325) are already certified by NR, so Cordel was ready to assemble a supplier team to work in partnership to deliver this rapid-turnaround, highly-accurate new capability to the UK.

THE CHALLENGES:

• STATION PLATFORM VARIATION – so measurement is needed.

Southeastern uses railway infrastructure dating from 1836 and, like the rest of the Network Rail asset base, it has been extended and amended over many decades. Southeastern’s new metro fleet will serve 236 station platforms which vary in height, shape and curvature. Although today’s standards specify a height of 915mm, Southeastern’s metro station platforms vary between 500mm and 1500mm high. According to RSSB research, only 7% of station platforms across the GB railway conform to both vertical height and horizontal offset criteria.

• STATION PLATFORMS ARE BUSY – so a trainborne solution was most efficient.

So, in order to optimise the new fleet accessibility, accurate, up-to-date measurements of the existing infrastructure were required. It is difficult, time-consuming and potentially disruptive to gather this data statically in multiple possessions, so a trainborne solution was found to give quickest and most cost-effective measurements.

THE PARTNERSHIP PROJECT: CREATING USEFUL INSIGHTS.

Cordel began by working with integrated customers Southeastern and Network Rail Kent (who are joined in the South East Alliance) to understand their needs. The NR-approved Cordel technology can be fitted to any train, so Cordel developed a partnership supply chain approach to enable the most rapid and cost-effective UK deployment.

Key to the project is the Network Rail-approved Cordel Wave 32 LiDAR, Locate and Imaging technology. This can be installed onto any train, being modular, lightweight and standalone. It is ‘there for the ride’, installed internationally on vehicles that routinely cover railway networks on other duties.

For the target vehicles, Cordel partnered with Network Rail’s Supply Chain Operations who own the Infrastructure Monitoring fleet used to collect other key datasets that inform asset interventions.

For the fitment, Cordel chose the proven expertise of Loram, who maintain Network Rail’s infrastructure monitoring fleet in Derby. Loram deployed their experience to schedule the successful fitments within the existing vehicle maintenance downtimes, without missing a single data-gathering shift.

Following installation in November and December 2024, the Cordel technology has been capturing and remotely uploading data for AI-processing into crucial measurements for Southeastern.

Cordel uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide up-to-date 3D images and highly accurate measurements of all 236 Southeastern metro station platforms, including automated upload of Network Rail approved infrastructure gauging files into the National Gauging Database. This is the information that train manufacturers and suppliers rely on to enable them to provide the most accessible train for the Southeastern network.

Cordel’s up-to-date measurements are available to train builders and infrastructure maintainers to ensure that the interface between the new trains and the existing platforms can be optimised, to maximise accessibility for train users in the most efficient way. Cordel delivers Network Rail approved accurate measurements of the infrastructure gauge at scale and within turnaround times that set UK records.

Going beyond the standards, Cordel has identified platform crossfall (slope) and furniture locations, to enable the design of the most accessible platform/ train interfaces. This creates the opportunity for new train designers and train operators to access measured outputs that are not currently available to them, unlocking further optimisation. For example, they can locate the accessible doors at positions in the train where any necessary access ramp can be successfully deployed, at a compliant slope, without impinging into a platform staircase or other obstruction that would be costly to move.

THE OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS: HELPING TO PROVIDE A MORE ACCESSIBLE, RELIABLE AND SAFER RAILWAY.

Cordel is providing Network-Rail-approved station platform gauging files into the National Gauging Database. This information supports manufacturers' design work to facilitate assisted boarding and maximise unassisted boarding across the Southeastern Metro network.

This is key to Southeastern’s commitment to significantly improve accessibility through the introduction of new or improved trains on the Metro network. The impact will make journeys easier for wheelchair users, people with pushchairs, small children, elderly travellers, in fact everyone.

Cordel provides more than just standard gauging files, with more granular measurements along the length and across the width of each platform allowing train builders and operators to optimise the Platform-Train Interface.

The Platform-Train Interface is important not only for accessibility, but also for safety. RSSB assess that 52% of railway passenger fatality risk derives from the Platform-Train Interface. Accurate, up-to-date, more granular data about the current state of every platform enables a full picture to be gained. At the same time as measuring the precise location of the platform edge, Cordel captures the curvature and cant, other key variables which impact the step for the passenger, alongside vertical gap and lateral offset between platform and train.

In addition to safety improvements, the PTI optimisation that this project enables will improve train reliability by reducing dwell times. This is because passengers understandably take longer to board and alight when faced with difficult steps on or off the train.

Delivering wider safety impact, the outputs from this project will not only improve accessibility and inclusion, but also feed into RSSB’s Platform-Train Interface Strategy (due publication in March 2026), showing how better data provides a significant opportunity for more effective risk mitigation across the railway.