Low adhesion is a serious safety and operational issue for the rail industry, costing around £350 million each year. It not only causes delays affecting train performance, but can also result in station overruns and signals being passed at danger. Temperature, humidity and the presence of leaf layers or other contaminants all have an impact on the level of adhesion between the train wheel and the rail. A new tool, developed as part of the RSSB and University of Sheffield research partnership, uses artificial intelligence to analyse data, and images of the railhead and surroundings to deliver an estimate of friction at the wheel-rail interface.

Hear how the tool created and how operational staff, such as Seasonal Delivery Specialists, can get involved in trialling the prototype tool and sharing feedback that will help to shape its development.