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Urban Railways MSc students visit Siemens Mobility depot
21 November 2019
The 19-20 Urban Railways MSc cohort visited Siemens Mobility’s Northam depot in Southampton this September, as part of Rail Week activities.
Students from Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE)’s Urban Railways MSc programme recently visited Southampton on a field trip, to take part in an open day event organised by Siemens Mobility and South Western Railway. The visit, which took place at the Northam Traincare Facility, was an early Rail Week activity.
Launched in 2016, Rail Week aims to cut the skills gap in the rail industry by introducing students and teachers, in both higher education and at schools, to the wide range of career opportunities available across the rail sector.
In a similar way, Urban Railways MSc, one of the most recently launched postgraduate taught programmes in CEGE, aims to teach students differently. Instead of being a traditional knowledge-based programme, this Master’s degree focuses instead on the transferable skills and visionary-thinking capabilities required in the urban railway industry.
The 19-20 cohort, who travelled at the end of Induction Week to Southampton, along with Programme Director Dr Taku Fujiyama, and CEGE Teaching Fellow Dr Yan Cheng, got to see such transferable skills and visionary thinking in action. Once at the Siemens Mobility depot, the students were given a detailed explanation of how trainsets are maintained and controlled, plus got to observe cutting-edge data analysis and railway digitalisation.
As Urban Railways MSc student Maoxu Zheng notes, the visit to the Northam depot “gave me an opportunity to see every part of a train and how to repair and maintain it in a short distance with my own eyes. And I got a clear understanding of the concept of urban railways before the start of our degree programme. The visit inspired my interest in urban rail even more!”
Fellow student Xiaoxuan Zhang commented: “The day we spent with Siemens Mobility at Northam Traincare Facility was thrilling, especially so when we looked closely at the structure of a Class 444 train, even having the opportunity to observe the train from underneath. It's amazing how Siemens' newly-created data pool and analysis platform is contributing to the urban railways industry.”
The Siemens Mobility visit, plus other planned field trips, are just one way in which Urban Railways MSc links the real-world railway industry with teaching. Students currently benefit from interaction on the programme with London-based urban railway practitioners, plus learn via group-work and scenario-based exercises. UCL Railway Research Group staff also currently contribute heavily to the programme, and students have a choice of following either a general pathway, or more analytics/management-focused pathways, according to their interests and specialisms.
The importance of field trips to the programme in general was emphasised by Dr Cheng, who explains how visits “such as the one to the Siemens Mobility depot really bring the industry to life for our students. Not only are they a great bonding exercise, particularly at the start of term, but they are also key for students to see how theory is put into practice, and how the real word is working, now.”
Such sentiments were echoed by Dr Fujiyama, who noted how beneficial it was for the Urban Railways MSc cohort to “see such cutting-edge industrial practice in person, and understand how dynamic data use can transform the passenger experience. Being able to effectively harness the power of data is so important in today’s world, and the urban rail industry is no exception to that. Seeing what changes Siemens Mobility and South Western Railway have adopted thanks to data analysis was very illuminating for us all.”
Siemens Mobility staff in particular were praised by student Nan Song for their enthusiasm, with Nan elaborating that the “train operation room was so cool! The detailed explanations of the staff helped us understand, and they were very patient in answering every question asked.”
Wailun Shing had visited Siemens’ Depot Open Day in Northampton in 2018, but commented how special it was to share this trip with his new classmates, who are “as enthusiastic about trains and the railway industry as I am.”
Bo Yuan summarised how the “excellent field trip to Northam depot enabled me to learn from advanced facilities, equipment and technology, all while having a great experience with my new classmates and tutors.”
William Wilson, CEO of Siemens Mobility Limited, commented how "delighted" staff were that the "Urban Railways MSc cohort enjoyed such an exciting and educational visit to our Northam depot facility in September. Such events and open days are an important part of inspiring the next generation of UK and global rail professionals.”
Find out more about UCL's Urban Railways MSc by watching our video below:
Links
Please note some links lead to external sites.
- Urban Railways MSc programme page
- UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
- UCL Railway Research Group
- Rail Week website
- Siemens Mobility Rail Open Day 2019 video
- Siemens Mobility website
Image
- Caption: The Urban Railways MSc students, plus Dr Fujiyama and Dr Cheng, at the Siemens Mobility Northam depot.