Published date: 27 September 2018

Last edited date: 27 September 2018

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 28 September 2018

Contract summary

Industry

  • Research consultancy services - 73210000

Location of contract

EC2M 2RB

Value of contract

£60,000 to £70,000

Procurement reference

RSSB2732 - T1156 Managing driver behaviours through adhesion-related information flows

Published date

27 September 2018

Closing date

28 September 2018

Contract start date

15 October 2018

Contract end date

29 March 2019

Contract type

Service contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (below threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements below the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

railway. The GB rail industry invests considerable resource to manage adhesion but, despite these efforts, low adhesion issues have a significant financial impact on industry and wider society. The impact of low adhesion can also result in future capacity constraints, for instance, as a barrier to efficient implementation of the European Train Control System (ETCS) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO).
An effect of low adhesion is its impact on train drivers' behaviour, which can reduce driver confidence and morale and potentially contribute to significant delays during the leaf-fall season. It is therefore desirable to have a greater understanding of the adhesion-related information that is provided to drivers and the extent to which they act (or are able to act) upon it, in order to improve driver confidence and performance in low-adhesion conditions.
This project directly supports the 'Driver Behaviours' workstream, which constitutes part of the ADHEsion REsearch challenge (ADHERE) Programme of work. ADHERE sets out to:
• Achieve 'adhesion conditions that are unaffected by and independent of the weather and climate'
• Address industry's gaps in knowledge with new insight
• Help improve how industry manages low adhesion by demonstrating and developing novel approaches and solutions

ADHERE was developed with and is governed by the Adhesion Research Group (ARG) and focuses on five key workstreams:

3. Objectives
This research will assess and evaluate the adhesion-related information provided to train drivers and propose changes and/or additions to information provision to enable drivers to drive more confidently during the leaf-fall season.
The project's objectives are to:
• Identify what information is currently provided to drivers
• Identify what current information drivers use to adjust driving behaviours (and how that varies based on adhesion and weather conditions, route, rolling stock, driver experience, etc)
• Identify what additional, or more appropriate, information could be provided to meet drivers' needs
• Develop proposal(s) for how information is presented (what, when, where and how)
• Clarify the proposed approach with managers and train drivers

RSSB has secured support from four Train Operating Companies (TOCs), which the supplier will undertake targeted engagement with. To ensure the that the findings are applicable across industry, the supplier will also be expected to undertake high-level engagement with other TOCs and Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) to assess adhesion-related information flow policies and practices.

More information

Attachments

About the buyer

Contact name

R&D Business Partner

Address

THE HELICON 1 SOUTH PLACE
LONDON
EC2M2RB
England

Telephone

020 3142 5300

Email

Shareditt@rssb.co.uk