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The Railway Industry Innovation Awards 2010

Sponsored by Modern Railways

Welcome to the Railway Industry Innovation Awards 2009, organised by Modern Railways. The Railway Industry Innovation Awards are the longest-established railway awards and keenly sought after by all sectors of the industry.

Key dates
Last date for receipt of entries: noon, Wednesday 21 April 2010
Awards luncheon: Friday 25 June 2010

Who can enter?
If you have a rail business in the UK, then you can. The Awards are open to all operators, infrastructure owners, manufacturing industry and service providers in both the public and private sectors.
Don’t be modest! If you have achieved a breakthrough in any of our categories we really do want to hear from you.
1. Engineering. This category covers all aspects of railway engineering: mechanical, civil and signalling. The judges will be looking for innovations in engineering practice that have delivered significant benefits such as enhancing operations, increasing capacity, raising productivity or lowering costs.
2. Safety. Always the first consideration in any project or operation, but innovative techniques can help make the railway safer. The judges will be looking for innovations in safety that reduce fatalities and injuries, and those that allow safety objectives to be met more cost-effectively.
3. Environment. This category recognises the increasingly important ‘green’ agenda and the efforts by the railway industry to react to concerns about the environment. The judges will be looking for innovations and projects that deliver benefits such as reducing carbon emissions, reducing pollution, cutting waste and improving the environment.
4. Passenger experience. This category is designed to recognise efforts by operators and others in the industry to improve the passenger experience while travelling on the railways. All aspects of a journey, from first inception to completion, are covered by this category. Among the elements of rail travel that will come into this category are innovative forms of information provision prior to taking a journey, ticketing, station amenities, information provision during the journey, on-board comfort and service, and the passenger experience between leaving the train and reaching the final destination.
5. Cross-industry partnership. Progress in the UK railway industry depends on different players co-operating with each other to the benefit of the final customer. The judges will be looking for instances where companies and individuals have worked together with others in the industry to move the industry forward.
6. Operations and Performance. The judges will be looking for innovations that improve railway operations, helping trains to run safely, efficiently and punctually and improving the Public Performance Measure.
7. Innovator of the Year - the John Armitt Award. This category, awarded on behalf of Modern Railways by the former Network Rail Chief Executive John Armitt, is designed to reward a person who has displayed exceptional flair in pushing forward innovations that have benefited the UK railway industry. The judges invite nominations for the award, with entries to include full back-up information as to why the person concerned merits an award. PLEASE NOTE: INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF STAFF ONLY SHOULD BE NOMINATED FOR THIS CATEGORY.
8. Small scale project. Not every innovation in the UK railway industry is on the scale of High Speed 1 and other grands projets. This category seeks to reward those companies and people who have introduced innovations that have brought tangible benefits, albeit on a scale that is only local or affecting one particular part of the industry. The judges will be looking for small-scale innovations that have brought significant advantages to their own sector of the industry or have wider lessons for others.
9. Large project. Massive sums are being invested in Britain’s railways at present, with some impressive projects coming to fruition. The judges will be looking for projects that have applied innovative techniques to bring them in on time and on budget.

How do I enter?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FORM

We know you are busy so we have tried to keep the procedure simple. But please do take the time to read the guidelines below so as to ensure your entry has the best possible chance of winning an Award.
Please ensure that the text supporting your entry is no more than 4 x A4 sides of paper and is presented in a display folder
Feel free to include photographs or illustrations to help bring your submission to life. They should be inserted in your display folder but do not count towards the maximum of 4 x A4 pages
Videos, CDs or DVDs are acceptable if they are an essential component of the case history e.g. an advertisement or web design
Multiple entries are encouraged, but any one submission should only be entered into a maximum of two categories
For judging purposes, please submit three hard copies for each entry.

Awards luncheon
Companies entering the Awards are invited to take tables at the Awards luncheon, to be held on Friday 25 June 2010 in the Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s Covent Garden. Further details on tables at the event are available by contacting Chris Shilling on 01778 421550, e-mail chris@shillingmedia.co.uk

FAQs
1. How do the judges come to their decision?
A pair of judges is assigned to each category. Without conferring, the judges consider criteria such as degree of innovation, evidence of research, delivery, practicability (to show that the idea has worked and enhanced what you offer), business context, strategic relevance. They then compare notes, discuss any other factors that they think relevant and agree a short list which is discussed and reviewed by the judging panel as a whole before a final decision is made. 2. If I don’t get short-listed can I find out why?
Sorry, but no. The judges are all volunteers and it would add too much to an already heavy burden if they had to respond to many requests of this kind. Their decision has to be final. 3. Does it cost anything to enter?
No. We want to encourage entries rather than make them subject to any budgetary constraints you might have. We are very grateful to our sponsors for helping to make this possible. 4. Can I re-enter a submission from a previous year?
Yes. We sometimes encourage this when a submission has been entered before there has been enough time to gather the evidence to show that it really worked.

The judges
The judging panel consists of experts from both within the industry and outside. All are extremely highly regarded in their individual fields and take judging of the awards extremely seriously. From time to time, a judge may find it necessary to contact the person named on the application entry form to discuss it further. So please be sure to include the name of the person responsible for the case history you are submitting on the application form. The Chair of the Judging Panel is Haydn Abbott, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Trains.
Anything we have forgotten to tell you? If you have any queries at all about your application, then please e-mail the awards administrator John Dennis at jdennis635@tiscali.co.uk
Good luck and get entering!