Network Rail has awarded a contract to a consortium led by Thales Ground Transportation Systems Ltd to develop and trial Fibre Optic Acoustic Sensing (FOAS) technology that will support improvements in safety and performance on the railway.

FOAS technology will be enriched with data fusion to enhance the ‘listening’ capabilities of optical fibres, of which there are already around 20,000km running alongside Britain’s railways. The implementation of this technology – effectively creating a virtual microphone every few metres – has the potential to enhance remote condition monitoring of assets and provide valuable data to improve train performance and reduce disruption for passengers.

The awarding of the contract follows a Design Contest launched in November 2020, led by Network Rail in collaboration with Dutch rail infrastructure operator ProRail, which challenged over 40 suppliers of different sizes to come up with proposals for a funded 12-month outcome-focused trial of FOAS, IoT sensors and smart CCTV cameras, amalgamated through intelligent data fusion and processing. Companies were required to address four areas of operational challenges on the railway:

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