Monitoring and maintaining an entire rail network can be costly, slow and, for those working on the track, very dangerous. Specialised trains were developed that could be mounted with sensors for collecting data on track gauging and track condition, however these couldn’t be mounted together. In this episode we look into the development of RILA or Rail Infrastructure Alignment Acquisition, which has been used on multiple rail networks to make data collection faster and safer.

In 2006 Jos Berkers had the idea to combine all the existing technology for rail data collection and put them in a box small enough to fit on passenger trains. After years of working to develop the idea in his living room he was able to test the system that became known as RILA on the Dutch rail network.

Since then RILA has continued to develop, with more sensors being added and more countries using it to monitor their networks. In 2021 RILA was used across the entire 2,000 miles of Scotland’s Rail network.  It reduced the time taken from 27,500 hours to under 1,000 hours, and Network Rail estimates that RILA prevented 72 minor and three major injuries from ever occurring.

Guests

Jos Berker, rail consultant, Fugro

Adam Carlin, former business developer for rail maintenance, Fugro