42 Technology wins funding to develop reconfigurable railway carriage

The funding has been made available through Tomorrow’s Train Design Today (TTDT), an international competition led by RSSB’s FutureRailway programme team in association with the Department for Transport and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

St Ives-based 42 Technology will use its share of funding to continue developing a flexible purpose carriage that can be reconfigured to carry passengers or freight as required.

The company said that when passenger occupancy levels are low - such as at off peak times or when commuter trains have delivered their passengers and are returning to the suburbs - the seats can be automatically moved and stowed to allow room for freight.

42 Technology said in a statement that this approach will help ease road congestion by encouraging more freight onto the railways, while delivering additional revenues to the UK rail network in excess of £100m through more intensive use of rolling stock and without any significant increase in operating cost.