Future of Rail: trends in rail passengers, rail freight, railway innovation - Rail Trends Keynote @patrickdixon-futurist

Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago

Keynote for Wabtec: innovation in railroad innovation; railway locomotives, carriages, signalling, rail freight. It typically takes 5 years to take railway locomotive innovations to market, with 10 years production life and track life of 50 years, so we need to take a long term view of innovation in the rail industry. Hyper-modular approach to innovation. Rail strategies can be overtaken by events which means leadership agility. In 2080 long distance rail freight will still be 10% lower cost than truck / road freight, and it will still be cheaper to ship containers over 5000km than by road for 500km. And it will still also be true that 60% of manufacturing revenues in many nations will be production by companies employing less than 100 people. All these factors will shape the future of rail logistics. Expect 3.5% per year growth globally in rail investment. Expect a stampede towards carbon zero freight - eg locomotive engines running on green hydrogen. Expect huge investment in integrator technologies - whether to deliver carbon zero or to meet expectations of tomorrow's customers.

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Future of Rail: trends in rail passengers, rail freight, railway innovation - Rail Trends Keynote

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