Keeping our rail industry on track – four key trends for UK rolling stock manufacturing and supplying in 2025
2025 marks 200 years since the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway— the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives— putting the UK on the map for rail innovation. Since then, our railways have become a key part of everyday life, helping people and goods move across the country with ease. With this has come a huge investment in UK rolling stock capability, with some of the world’s biggest manufacturers setting up facilities in strategic locations.
However, there are multiple challenges facing the industry, from unstable procurement patterns to how to attract more passengers, to ensuring that our railways are ready to meet national decarbonisation goals. In this Insights piece, we explore some of the key trends and priorities for rolling stock manufacturers in the months ahead, and how our Noise Control division can support them.
Safety and quality
Ensuring the safety of passengers and staff will always be the utmost priority for any rolling stock manufacturer. In addition to ensuring the correct assembly and checking procedures are in place, a key part of this is making sure the products and materials used are code compliant and properly tested.
This is something which we are extremely passionate about at Siderise, and our testing capabilities have consistently set us apart from the competition. We have the ability to undertake small-scale acoustic and thermal testing in-house in our acoustics division and quality laboratory respectively. Our £1m Innovation Centre opened in Maesteg in 2023. This features a specialist furnace which allows our engineers to carry out fire-resistance testing in-house, bringing a huge benefit to our passive fire protection range in terms of research, development and quality control. We have also built strong relationships with external laboratories which can carry out larger-scale tests on materials where necessary.
In addition to working to extend its in-house testing capabilities, we are also always actively seeking to invest in third party accreditation. For example, one of our clients referenced the IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) certification in their supplier onboarding process, so we have invested in proactively getting that accreditation in place before their production line comes on stream in the UK. Based on aerospace and automotive quality standards, IRIS Certification is a rigorous means of evaluating suppliers to the rail industry. To achieve it, organisations must demonstrate that they comply with ISO/TS 22163:2017 – and a range of other rules and procedures.
Customer comfort
The COVID pandemic obviously caused a huge drop in passenger numbers, and the industry has been steadily working to attract passengers back— with the latest Office for Rail and Road statistics demonstrating that revenue has grown to an estimated £1.6bn in the financial year 2023-2024. However, to not only get back up to the pre-pandemic £1.7bn of revenue, but beyond this, it is vital that the industry creates a positive and comfortable travel experience that convinces people to leave the car at home. A big part of this is considering carriage’s acoustic performance. Noise, both from surrounding activity and the train operation itself, can make train journeys hugely uncomfortable, especially for long journeys, and negate potential productivity benefits passengers can achieve travelling by rail as opposed to driving.
We often work closely with design teams to look at these issues and find ways to reduce noise using compliant insulation materials. Our in-house impedance tube test facility has proven particularly useful in these scenarios, allowing us to test acoustic absorption for small samples to ensure we have the correct solution in place before full size external testing is done.
Sustainability
As we move to a more sustainable way of life, we are seeing more hybrid drive systems coming to the market which offer flexibility and the option to change to electric/battery or hydrogen power in urban areas. We are also seeing an increase in the number of smaller regional train- and tramlines being revived as more and more cities look to encourage more people to use public transport instead of their cars.
From a product supplier perspective, this means we must ensure that we have solutions for all kinds of rolling stock, and they can deliver the comfort and reliability necessary. For instance, having the right insulation specification is not only crucial to keeping the interior at a desired temperature, but also helps to reduce energy consumption— a key consideration especially for the new battery powered trains. However, space is also often an important factor in cabin design. In these situations, it is important to ensure that the insulation material delivers a high enough thermal efficiency without compromising the thickness of the material and therefore negatively impacting on the available internal space for passengers. That’s why we offer a range of insulation options, with varying performance, thicknesses and weights.
Suppliers also need to be ready to keep up with evolving expectations as Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities gain greater attention in the rail sector. To demonstrate our commitment to ESG, we recently gained a silver EcoVadis rating with a score falling within the top five per cent globally. Ultimately, we aim to achieve a gold rating. You can learn more about our benchmarks and measures to integrate sustainable practice in our first Sustainability Report.
Collaboration
Of course, to address all these challenges, experts from across the sector need to be pooling their knowledge and expertise. For example, in the UK, over the last decade there has been a huge investment in the rail industry, with new rolling stock manufacturing facilities being built across the country. This has led to a lot of people migrating into the sector from other industries and from other countries, and Siderise has frequently been asked to share our experience and knowledge to help them to understand the materials, specifications and requirements necessary to deliver all kinds of specialist projects.
We’ve taken specifications that come from the other side of the world, analysed them in detail, and established that – while the material specification is safe to use – it has not been tested to European accreditation standards (for example EN 45545 Fire Protection on Railway Vehicles). So, we’ve then worked to understand the material and developed a bespoke product that meets the same performance criteria and then tested it to the relevant European standards— ensuring a locally-available product that ticks every box in terms of compliance, lower-carbon sourcing, shipping costs and lead times.
Siderise rail solutions
Siderise noise control treatments, HVAC solutions, and thermal insulation products have been keeping passengers safe and comfortable for over 25 years. In addition to providing our own range of products, which have been developed and tested over the years, we also have the capabilities to work with any client’s material specification to create bespoke solutions that meet their exacting needs. We can even look to ensure local sourcing of specialist materials where required, helping to save time and money for our customers.
But we don’t just see our role as a supplier of products. Siderise Group is passionate about supporting our customers— no matter the sector— with a suite of useful and accessible technical services. Seven people within our team are members of the Institute of Acoustics, and the business has extensive experience and a deep knowledge of passive fire protection.
Interested in learning more? Contact our dedicated acoustics team.