An AI tool has been premiered in Glasgow that is already helping the UK’s Network Rail make savings on electrification upgrades.
Developed by Furrer+Frey, Lineform.AI works with data beamed down from Airbus satellites and uploaded from an array of datasets to develop recommendations for electrification. It also provides high level cost estimates as well as embodied carbon data for each option and can then draw up concept designs.
Having been trained by engineers, Lineform.AI surveys satellite images to spot rail infrastructure and assess any existing line – mapping out culverts, signals, bridges and level crossings. With its understanding of a line’s constraints, and access to an in-depth database of electrification system standards, weather models and averaged construction costs, it develops hundreds of electrification options for review by engineers.
The AI tool can quickly run complex calculations that consider multiple interdependent variables, such as wind speeds, span lengths, cable tensions, catenary height and more, to optimise an overhead line system and the structures that support it.
The tool has already helped modify UK infrastructure standards and supported contracting strategies on key projects in the UK and Ireland. Following detailed AI analysis of the Perth to Aberdeen corridor, Network Rail implemented UK wide changes in the way it designs rail electrification to reduce cost.
The latest phase of work has now examined ScotRail’s Barrhead to Kilmarnock and Troon routes, helping shape early plans for upgrades pencilled in to start in Network Rail’s Control Period 8 (from 2029). It has also been used to inform early design strategy for Irish Rail’s extension of the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART+) scheme. Analysis is underway for further British and continental European routes considering electrification.
Richard Stainton, Electrification Expert at Network Rail, said: “These tools have supported Network Rail in making savings in electrification projects. Incremental gains in lowering the cost of electrification are how we make projects deliverable.”
Noel Dolphin, Head of UK Projects at Furrer+Frey, said: “The Scottish case studies demonstrate how AI enabled design can reduce cost and embodied carbon while increasing transparency and speed. What this really means is that ultimately, we will be able to deliver benefits to passengers sooner. We are using AI for good – to give engineers better data, not to replace engineers.”
Attended by around 50 delegates from across industry at the University of Strathclyde’s Technology and Innovation Centre, the AI tool was showcased to demonstrate how it can help keep costs down and manage complexity.
The project to develop the tool was awarded funding by the UK Space Agency and supported by Airbus Space and Defence and Network Rail.
Lineform.AI’s development was also supported by funding from the Department for Transport and Innovate UK’s 2025 First of a Kind competition to develop uses of AI for complex processes.
Image credit Furrer+Frey
