Rail stations are complex operational environments and key parts of the passenger journey. Innovators face barriers such as procurement hurdles, system integration challenges, and limited funding opportunities.
The Station Innovation Zone was created to overcome these barriers — enabling SMEs to trial technologies in real settings and helping rail partners de-risk adoption.
“As one of the UK’s largest infrastructure clients, Network Rail recognises the value of supporting home-grown innovators with fresh thinking. We work closely with SMEs to understand how their innovations can improve passenger confidence and safety.”Brian Wortman, Senior Programme Manager at Network Rail
“We can’t extol the virtues of the SIZ programme highly enough! The support we have had from the teams at Connected Places Catapult, Network Rail and GWR has been amazing, and the opportunity to deploy and iteratively develop a product in a live station environment has not only accelerated development but has already led to commercial procurement of our Buddy solution. We’re even talking to European operators about pilots of our station hardware, so the whole programme has been invaluable”Alex Froom, Chief Strategy Officer at Journey Alerts
Explore how an Innovation Zone could work for you
De‑risk innovation: without carrying full development costs, you can accelerate access to commercially viable products at a lower total cost.
Economies of scale: Test multiple technologies simultaneously to reduce overheads, share installation and data sources.
Measure impact: Access a rigorous approach to measuring the outcomes of the trials – not just from a technology perspective.
Test mature technologies: The innovation zone approach can provide an operationally complex, data‑rich testbed where solutions can be validated under live conditions, reducing integration and safety risk before wider network deployment.
Overcome cultural and adoption barriers: Offer a dedicated, collaborative real‑world testbed where stakeholders are engaged early, enabling faster, safer and more confident integration of high‑maturity innovations.
For more information please contact Hari Patel, Head of Rail Technical, Hari.Patel@cp.catapult.org.uk
