Britain’s railway is moving forward with its development of quantum inertial navigation technologies which are designed to measure train positions with extreme accuracy, improving the railway for passengers and freight.
These new systems, which use ultra-sensitive sensors to detect the smallest of changes in motion and rotation, will provide more accurate positioning data than the satellite-based navigation systems currently used. These satellite systems can be unreliable when trains pass through infrastructures, like tunnels, that interfere with external signals. The new technology is to be implemented by the national rail network as an alternative to fixed trackside positioning infrastructure, which has high installation and maintenance costs. These high maintenance costs are typically due to the trackside positioning infrastructure being susceptible to environmental disruption, damage and equipment failures.
Mainline railway testing of the Rail Quantum Inertial Navigation System (RQINS) took place, for the first time ever in the world, on Tuesday 3 March between central London and Welwyn Garden City, on a Great Northern train operated by Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR). The purpose of this test was to provide real-world data to support understanding of how these quantum positioning technologies work within a national railway network.
This development programme, building on work undertaken by the Ministry of Defence and on Transport for London’s network, and convened by GBRX, is being progressed through a specialist group led by MoniRail. This partnership consists of Imperial College London, the University of Sussex, QinetiQ, PA Consulting, and the National Physical Laboratory, and is supported by Innovate UK and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).