Greater Anglia tackling delays through artificial intelligence
It's to stop trees and branches blocking the line or obscuring signals
Greater Anglia is tackling train delays by using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to spot potential issues with trees and plants on the railway.
The company says trees and branches can block the line or obscure signals, whilst falling leaves can compress into a slippery black-ice-like mulch which can cause delays and inconvenience to rail passengers.
Ellie Burrows, Network Rail’s route director for Anglia, said: “Managing vegetation is hugely important to us. If not managed well, trees and fallen leaves can pose a risk to the safe running of the railway and cause delays to trains.
“This new technology helps our teams quickly pinpoint exactly where lineside vegetation is likely to be an issue, so it can be cut back before it causes delays to passenger services.”
How does it work?
In a bid to combat these issues, Greater Anglia are using AI technology to analyse video recorded on its trains to see which areas are becoming potentially overgrown, recording main routes between London and Norwich and the whole of the West Anglia Mainline running from London via Cambridge.
Maps are then generated showing where issues have been found, allowing Network Rail engineers to pre-emptively tackle the areas before they cause delays and to prioritise issues depending on their severity.
The project is a collaboration involving Network Rail, railway technology company CrossTech, and other partners.
Martin Beable, Greater Anglia’s engineering director, said: “The footage from our trains and our collaboration with Network Rail and CrossTech is key in giving an early alert to our colleagues at Network Rail so that any problematic areas where trees or other lineside vegetation are about to obscure anything are quickly picked up.
“We are delighted to be able to support Network Rail in adopting this novel technology because it means fewer delays for our trains and the busy routes we run on our network.”