Jonathan is a MEng student at the University of Birmingham and an engineer at Great Western Railway working on the Fast Charge Battery Train Trial, a project to design, manufacture and introduce into passenger service the Fast Charge capable Class 230 on the Greenford branch in London. He joined the team at Vivarail while on a placement year as part of his degree in Electrical and Railway Engineering, and stayed on after the project was taken on by GWR earlier this year. He has worked on several areas of the project including the Fast Charge shoegear testing programme. Since joining the team, he has developed the in-house energy simulation and range prediction software, using it to investigate the feasibility of replacing diesel traction with Fast Charge battery technology on several routes. His previous experience in the rail industry includes condition monitoring projects at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (BCRRE) and project management consultancy for Porterbrook.