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Siemens News
Siemens Unveils Plans for Rail Innovation Centre
Siemens Mobility has published plans for a rail innovation centre for the UK rail industry, to be built in Goole, East Yorkshire.
The 6 million GBP building will form the first phase of the Rail Accelerator and Innovation Solutions Hub for Enterprise (RaisE). This innovation cluster will sit alongside a 200 million GBP rail manufacturing facility that Siemens is building on a neighbouring site.
A network of partners from the UK rail industry and higher education is in support of the innovation centre. It will place a central focus on providing R&D support. The centre will also contain a facility for start-ups and and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are focused on rail industry supply chains. It will have spaces for collaboration, potentially on a cross-sector basis.
The innovation centre project is connected to the Siemens Mobility manufacturing facility for the UK’s expanding train market at the Goole 36 site. Siemens Mobility will be the main occupant of the top floor of the first phase building. This is where the support functions for the rail manufacturing facility will be based.
The planning application states that the aim is for more R&D facilities to be built to the north of the first building over a five-acre area. Siemens Mobility has already received planning permission from East Riding of Yorkshire Council to construct 80,000 square metres of manufacturing, commissioning, warehouse buildings and stabling sidings, along with offices. This new application for the 3,200 square metre building is the first detailed proposal for the site.
Siemens Mobility is in the process of finalising its plans for the manufacturing site. It estimates it will be able to submit these early in 2020. Construction should then begin by early summer, with the first phase to open in 2023.
Sambit Banerjee, Managing Director, Rolling Stock and Customer Services, Siemens Mobility Ltd, said:
“We have been working closely and collaboratively with partners to bring these exciting proposals forward.
“As well as accommodating support teams for our new rail manufacturing facilities, this building and other later related facilities will offer significant benefits to partners from industry and academia.
“This is the first phase of development of a cluster of facilities focused on innovation and research and development that will create a high-tech centre of excellence for the UK rail industry.
“The objectives of RaisE are consistent with our ambitions to establish a world-class rail village at Goole, combining manufacturing facilities with digital-led innovation to drive technological advances across the rail network and industry.”
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