{"id":64697,"date":"2026-10-08T18:00:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=64697"},"modified":"2026-10-07T19:26:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T18:26:40","slug":"light-rail-summit-puts-smarter-stronger-networks-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=64697","title":{"rendered":"Light Rail Summit puts smarter, stronger, networks in focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The eighth Light Rail Summit, organised by UKTram and the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (LRSSB), took place in Birmingham on 16th<\/sup> September 2026. This year\u2019s theme was Smarter Systems, Stronger Networks and included speakers looking at opportunities to drive the sector forward.<\/p>\n

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Topics covered during the busy summit included safety, sustainability, skills, innovation, devolution, decarbonisation and the evolving landscape of mass transit.<\/p>\n

During his speech, UKTram Managing Director, Jame Hammett, highlighted the growing engagement through the organisations Functional Groups, the launch of the Members Hub and RFI Library, new skills initiatives and a strengthening of UKTram\u2019s capacity to support their members.<\/p>\n

Speakers during the day discussed how new ideas and current expertise can help light rail meet future challenges for the sector. This included Leo Murray, Co-Founder of Riding Sunbeams, exploring the potential for renewable energy to support rail traction, including opportunities for direct-wire solar generation and its potential application to light rail networks.<\/p>\n

There was also a look at passenger experience with Jo Smedley from Keolis Nottingham and Samantha Murat from KeolisAmey Docklands sharing initiatives designed to make networks more accessible and responsive to the people who use them.<\/p>\n

James Hammett, UKTram Managing Director, said: \u201cThis year\u2019s Summit demonstrated yet again just how much expertise and enthusiasm there is across light rail. There is real opportunity ahead for our sector, and UKTram will continue to make sure the knowledge held across our membership is turned into practical support and a collective voice that helps light rail make the most of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn event of this scale takes a huge amount of work behind the scenes, and I\u2019d like to thank Lorraine George and Dan Hill, whose hard work over many months made the day possible, as well as everyone across UKTram and LRSSB who supported the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safety was also a key theme of the day. Members of the LRSSB gave updates on projects aimed at tackling risks identified by models, including the national pedestrian safety campaign and research into devices to alert people of approaching trams at non-motorised user crossings.<\/p>\n

Carl Williams, Chief Executive of LRSSB, said: \u201cThe Light Rail Summit provided the ideal platform to update the sector on our latest risk modelling, which has revealed an overall reduction in the sector\u2019s total collective risk of 27 per cent over the past three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince our models were last reviewed in 2023, we\u2019ve seen improvements in all areas of tramway safety, with the greatest gains coming from measures to mitigate against incidents involving third parties, including pedestrians and other road users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advances we\u2019ve already seen are down to hard work and commitment across the sector, but we can never be complacent, and the LRSSB will continue to take the lead in embracing innovative new technologies and shared best practice to ensure the UK remains a world leader in tramway safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ticket donations to attend the Summit raised \u00a31,550 for the charity Railway Children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eighth Light Rail Summit, organised by UKTram and the Light Rail Safety and Standards Board (LRSSB), took place in Birmingham on 16th September 2026. This year\u2019s theme was Smarter Systems, Stronger Networks and included speakers looking at opportunities to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[111,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64697"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64698,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64697\/revisions\/64698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}