Engineering Matters Podcast
Fugro RILA® – Health & safety champion
Published
26 Nov 2024
Monitoring and maintaining an entire rail network can be costly, slow and, for those working on the track, very dangerous. Specialised trains were developed that could be mounted with sensors for collecting data on track gauging and track condition, however these couldn’t be mounted together. In this episode we investigate the development of RILA®, our train-mounted track measurement system, which has been used on multiple rail networks to make data collection faster and safer.
In 2006, Jos Berkers had the idea to combine all the existing technology for rail data collection and put them in a box small enough to fit on passenger trains. After years of working to develop the idea in his living room he was able to test the system that became known as the rail infrastructure alignment acquisition system (RILA®) on the Dutch rail network.
Since then, RILA® has continued to develop, with more sensors being added and more countries using it to monitor their networks. In 2021, RILA® was used across the entire 2,000 miles of Scotland’s Rail network. It reduced the time taken from 27,500 hours to under 1,000 hours. Using this saving in man hours, and an industry weighted formula, it is estimated that RILA prevented 72 minor and three major injuries from ever occurring.
Guests
Jos Berker, Rail Consultant, Fugro
Adam Carlin, Business Developer for Rail Maintenance, Fugro
Partner
This is an Engineering Matters Health & Safety Gold Champion Awards 2024 episode.
Rail
Want to grow into a low emission railway user? Have net-zero targets to meet? We’d love to support you – with electrification, digital transformation, mobile infrastructure monitoring, and data insights. That’s why we create a 3D representation of your railway corridor, which you can access via a completely secure portal. This model lets you make pin-point accurate predictions and help you make better decisions – faster. Our rail services also enable track ballast quantity and distribution plus earthworks and vegetation control. Our ethos - survey once, use many times.