ProRail and TU Delft continue their collaboration
ProRail and TU Delft continue their collaboration. The coming five years ProRail will provide financial support for the section Railway Engineering of CEG faculty. The contract for this has been signed during on 7 October by Mirjam van Velthuizen-Lormans (CFO ProRail), Karel van Gils (director Innovation ProRail) and Jan Dirk Jansen (dean CEG, TU Delft).
ProRail visit at TU Delft
DelftRail organised on 7 October an interesting and inspiring afternoon for ProRail with several presentations and pitches by TU Delft in the field of digitalisation in train operations, increasing capacity, education and future of work and energy management. Also a round table session was organised with rector magnificus Tim van der Hagen, the four DelftRail deans, I&IC representation, ProRail CFO and ProRail innovation director. At the end of the day during a festive ceremony the contract was signed.
Rail Engineering grows and develops further
Knowledge development and education in the field of railway engineering and a close connection to the rail sector on research and education are very important for ProRail and the Dutch Rail system. The last ten years the collaboration between ProRail and TU Delft was effectuated by the financial contribution to support and strengthening of the section Railway Engineering.
With this new contract ProRail is contributing to focussed scientific and technical research and the development of new educational programmes. With this incentive the section Railway engineering of CEG faculty can develop and grow further and enables ProRail to connect to the next generation researchers and scientific educated personnel for the Rail sector.
Collaboration Alliances
The last decennium the collaboration between ProRail and TU Delft expanded. ProRail can benefit of the knowledge from different faculties within DelftRail. For TU Delft the more programmatic support of ProRail approach led to a more effective way of working.
Education and Research
An important step was 10 years ago, the financing of the Chair in Railway Engineering. Rolf Dollevoet, our DelftRail general director works already 10 years in the position of part-time professor for TU Delft and ProRail. An ideal liaison position for both institutes to stimulate and strengthen the collaboration further. A concrete result is the development of a complete section dedicated on Railway Engineering, where relevant research results are being achieved and a thorough education programme is being developed.
Railway Engineering has also an important role as being one of the pillars within Delftrail, which was founded in 2021 where four faculties (CEG, TPM, EEMCS, ME) collaborate in close contact with industry and government. DelftRail is initiated to increase the value of advanced research in railway engineering and operations, ensuring a sustainable, robust and future proof railway system. The complex issues in daily practice and the challenges of tomorrow are pursued from an interdisciplinary perspective to facilitate the travellers nationally and internationally.