Project Dates: From March 2016 to November 2017
Project Leaders: Dr Waressara Weerawat, Mahidol University and Dr Marin Marinov, Newcastle University
Sponsors: Newton Fund, The Royal Academy of Engineering
Partners: Mahidol University, Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company Limited (BTSC), Newcastle University

The railway industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, evolving at different paces in various geographic areas throughout the world. However, the development of the rail industry in Asia and Thailand in particular is one of the greatest and most concentrated centers of development worldwide currently and in the years to come.

The UK has a long tradition in railway developments as well as experience provisioning rail education and research activities at the national and international levels. NewRail has been involved in a large number of European-wide rail research projects investigating various aspects of railway infrastructure, rail vehicles, rail maintenance, freight and logistics as well as new curricula for effective railway education. In Thailand, where railway infrastructure and policy are being developed to meet international standards, a high level of investment is planned in the near future. These investments will generate significant business, research and education opportunities especially to serve as hands-on case study subject matter for academia and industry. On-going as well as new and planned railway projects, such as new metro lines in Bangkok, intercity lines or South East Asian High Speed Rail are just a few of many projects which will develop and build momentum in the coming years.

RailExchange aims to develop sustainable railway education in Thailand, via international partnerships and industry collaborations based around stakeholders' expertise and experiences. There are three primary objectives with these initiatives:

1. To enhance the Thai engineering education system through knowledge-sharing from the UK university and the rail industry perspectives.
2. To promote the workplace simulation based on industrial case studies.
3. To promote the collaboration in shaping new rail engineering curricula in Thailand.

The proposed RailExchange program will promote three-way collaboration between: 1) the Railway Engineering Program of Mahidol University, 2) the Bangkok Mass Transit System (BTS) and 3) NewRail, Newcastle University.

The project aims to provide opportunities for engineering educators and professionals to enhance their knowledge through joint activities and collaborations. The programme includes a list of key activities as follows:

• Organize special lecture series:
  • Rail Timetabling, a 3-day course delivered by Dr Marin Marinov, Newcastle University
  • Applied Statistics for Rail System Performance, a 2-day course delivered by Dr Anna Fraszczyk, Mahidol University
  • Rail Freight and Logistics, a 5-day course delivered by Dr Marin Marinov, Newcastle University
• Staff exchange (academics and researchers) between Mahidol and Newcastle University:
  • Newcastle University staff visit at Mahidol University: Dr Marin Marinov, February and May 2017
  • Mahidol University staff visit at Newcastle University: Dr Waressara Weerawat, October 2017
• Joint supervision of student projects:
  • Timetable design for the extended BTS Green Line
• Develop industrial case teaching
  • Timetable design for the extended BTS Green Line
• Organize/ co-organize railway conferences
  • OSCM 18 – 21 December 2016, Phuket, Thailand
  • RailNewcastle 6 October 2017, Newcastle, UK

Paper submission: https://ocs.springer.com/prom/home/RailNewcastle2017

Conference registration: https://goo.gl/Wqn7kL