42 Technology’s adaptable carriage concept features in Eureka magazine

Is this highly innovative project a sign that the pace of development may be changing in the rail industry?

Our concept for a next generation flexible purpose rail carriage which is being developed under the Tomorrow’s Train Design Today competition run by Future Railway and has been featured in Eureka magazine.

Could this work for HS2?

“I think it would be absolutely ideal for them,” said Dr Jon Spratley, director of 42 Technology. “But there are some different requirements with high-speed trains.

It’s all to do with the wind pressures on doors. You tend to find that high-speed trains have much smaller doors which makes it harder to load cargo in and out. It’s not insurmountable – if it was felt that the business case warranted it, I’m sure it’s not beyond the wit of man to design a train that could both go faster and have wider doors.

However, as things currently stand, it would be quite a limitation. You couldn’t take a Eurostar-type train with the two little doors at the end. It would take you half an hour to load a carriage full of cargo, one box at a time. It wouldn’t be feasible.

So it has different challenges. And whilst we are very open to considering that, that’s not our primary focus. I don’t think HS2 is in a position to have that level of engagement, yet.

But I believe the trains are going to be something like 400 metres long for HS2. In peak hours they’re looking at running short lengths. This means either stowing a couple of hundred metres of carriages somewhere, or filling it with something else to generate revenue”

The complete article, published in the September 2015 issue of Eureka can be downloaded here:

All change at the next station (pdf)