Lightweight energy-saving carriages, software that informs passengers how much space is available on arriving trains, and personalised ticket machines designed to help customers with their ongoing journeys, are just some of the projects that have won funding in the Government’s railways innovation scheme.

Now, another £7.9 million is on offer to develop cutting-edge ways to improve the network for passengers in the next round of the Accelerating Innovation in Rail (AIR) scheme, run by the Department for Transport (DfT) in partnership with Innovate UK.

The competition is open to companies of all sizes across the UK, but all entries must be collaborative, involving at least two different organisations and at least one SME. The closing date for entries is 15 November 2017.

Rail Minister Paul Maynard said: “We want to see ideas that improve reliability on the network for passengers. This is about nurturing innovation on the railways and developing trains that are less reliant on complex and costly infrastructure.

"We want to tap into these inventive and ground-breaking ideas for the benefit of rail passengers across the country, and to support the biggest modernisation programme in rail since the Victorian era.”

The last funding round in March this year attracted a diverse range of entries, including designing automated vehicles to carry out track inspections, a system that tackles trackside drainage to cut delays and line closures, and software that predicts when potential train breakdowns might occur.