Porterbrook has announced significant support for the National Railway Museum with a £2.5m sponsorship agreement.
The funding supports the new ‘Railway Futures Gallery’ - a key component of the museum’s Vision 2025 masterplan.
The gallery will be a multi-dimensional and interactive experience which explores and imagines the role of the railways in the transport system of tomorrow.
Planned to open in 2025 to coincide with the museum’s 50th birthday, the Railway Futures Gallery will be a key feature of Central Hall – a new building and welcome space located between the museum’s Great Hall and Station Hall.
Central Hall will be a cornerstone of Vision 2025 - the museum’s journey to transform its offer to become the World’s Railway Museum and to attract up to 1.2m visitors each year.
Porterbrook owns almost a quarter of the national passenger rail fleet, and has an established reputation for delivering new technologies, such as battery, hybrid and hydrogen powered trains. These innovations support the UK’s Net Zero ambitions, improve air quality, reduce emissions, and enhance network resilience.
The partnership builds on a decade-long relationship and reflects a shared vision between the National Railway Museum and Porterbrook in areas such as sustainability and how innovation and digital technologies can and will shape the railway of the future.
In addition, both organisations are strongly committed to promoting the STEM agenda and helping empower future generations through science, technology, engineering and mathematics to grow a dynamic railway for the 21st century.
Mary Grant, CEO of Porterbrook said: “The National Railway Museum plays a hugely important role in curating rail’s history and heritage while articulating a vision and ambition for its future. Porterbrook is at the forefront of innovations which are shaping the railway and we are delighted to support the museum’s Railway Futures Gallery to help inspire the railwaymen and railwaywomen of tomorrow.”
Judith McNicol, Director of the National Railway Museum said: “The new Railway Futures Gallery is a key part of the museum’s Vision 2025 masterplan and through a mix of fixed and changing displays, an immersive media-led experience and on-gallery programming, we will showcase the most exciting engineering projects and highlight the role of innovation on the railway. Thank you to Porterbrook for its generous support.”
The final gallery name will be confirmed at a later date once a process of audience testing has been complete. ‘Railway Futures: The Porterbrook Gallery’ is the current full working title. The National Railway Museum is seeking additional funding to complete the Vision 2025 project.
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
About the National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum in York has the largest collection of railway objects in the world and prior to the pandemic, attracted more than 750,000 visitors per year. The collection includes over 260 locomotives and rolling stock as well as coins, medals, railway uniform and equipment, documents, artwork and photographs.
The National Railway Museum forms part of the Science Museum Group, along with the Science Museum in London, the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford and Locomotion in Shildon. For more information, visit: www.railwaymuseum.org.uk
The Railway Futures Gallery will build on the National Railway Museum’s aim to represent today’s railways and the transport and engineering innovations of the future, alongside the heritage and history of the railways.
The museum has begun a contemporary collecting project and has developed exhibitions such as Railway Heroes and Innovation Platform that cover topics such as the role of rail workers during the Covid pandemic and the impact of autonomous technology.
About Porterbrook
Porterbrook owns almost a quarter of the national passenger rail fleet and currently has around 4,000 vehicles on lease or on order. To date it has invested £3bn in new passenger and freight vehicles and is actively looking to invest a further £1bn in UK rail in the coming years.
The business has an established reputation for delivering new technologies, such as battery, hybrid and hydrogen powered trains. These innovations support the government’s commitment to Net Zero by 2050 ambitions, improve air quality, reduce emissions, and enhance network resilience. In 2019 it introduced ‘HydroFLEX’, the UK’s first hydrogen-powered train. A fully productionised version of this innovative train was showcased at Glasgow in November 2021 during COP26
In collaboration with industry partners, Porterbrook project manages the delivery of regular upgrades to its rolling stock fleets. Each year the company invests over £100m in its existing assets, supporting over 100 UK-based companies and supporting c.7,000 jobs.
