Freight electrification wins award

Furrer+Frey with partners Tarmac, GB Railfreight and SPL Powerlines won a Railway Innovation Award on 1 July 2022 for their role in developing a moveable system for electrifying rail freight yards. The demonstration, held in Wellingborough (UK) in Spring 2022, showed how electric freight trains could enter and exit yards under overhead power, with the overhead conductor bar being moved aside and isolated for safe loading and unloading. The system won the support of Innovate UK’s 2021 First of a Kind competition, funded by the UK Department for Transport, and received backing from all UK Rail Freight Operators, through the Rail Forum. The system won the award for the best small-scale project at the Railway Innovation Awards.