J U N E 2 0 1 5
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Reap the rewardsof connectivity How new advances in connectivity will benefit rail travellers
Helping travellersto choose rail The challenges of keeping rail ahead of other modes of transport
RemoteintelligenceThe rising demand for telemanagement solutions
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Contents
Andrew Taylor is the Group CEO of Nomad Digital, with over 23 years’ experience across multiple industries and sectors. Before joining Nomad in 2013, Andrew was Digicel’s Regional Chief Executive Officer, with overall responsibility for their Northern Caribbean operations. Prior to this, Andrew was Group CEO of Intec Telecom, a global software company, listed on the main London stock exchange. Andrew is currently a Non-Executive Director at MDS Systems.
3 Introduction
Alex Collart is a strategy consultant and corporate finance advisor specialised in Telecom and Technology markets. He has advised customers such as BT, Alcatel Lucent, Vodafone, Orange and Telefonica. An industrial engineer with an MBA from IESE, Alex is currently a partner of Cartagena Capital and ACO Partners.
4 Renaissance of rail
Nigel Wallbridge is the founder of Nomad Digital. He has previously held senior managerial positions in the telecommunications industry, including CEO of Interoute, and President of Cable & Wireless Americas. A professional engineer with a doctoral degree from the University of Leeds, and an MBA from INSEAD, Nigel is the director of a number of technology companies.
6 Departure points and future stops
Laurent Troger is the Chief Technology Officer for Bombardier Transportation, with over 25 years of experience gained in a wide range of roles in the defence and rail sectors. Laurent joined Bombardier in 2004 to lead Bombardier’s global services business. Subsequently he was appointed to the role of President of Western Europe, Middle East and Africa with responsibility for both rolling stock and services across the region. He became Chief Technology Officer in January 2015.
11 Helping travellers to choose rail
Iain Brockbank is a Director at Warren Partners, a leadership services and executive search firm. Iain is head of a practice specialising in Transport and Infrastructure, delivering board and senior executive assignments in the UK and internationally.
14 A new breed of leaders
Adriano de Carvalho is a Professor at Porto Engineering School. He is Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at Porto University, and a member of the University’s Scientific Board and Strategic Board. Prof de Carvalho blends his academic role with entrepreneurial work, advising and supporting start-ups and more established businesses in their growth ambitions.
16 Remote intelligence
Alf Pilgrim is the Chief Technology Officer at Nomad Digital. With a PhD in Computer Science and holding over 30 years’ experience in creating commercially successful software products, Alf has a solid track record of product and technology planning that has successfully delivered R&D operations for a variety of enterprise and venture capital funded organisations. Previous to working at Nomad, Alf was the Chief Technology Officer at Clearswift.
18 Reap the rewards of connectivity
Introduction
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A WEALTH OF INSIGHTWelcome to the first edition of Platform. As the name suggests, we have devised the publication as a forum for leading voices across our industry – a chance to share new insights, to consider the more pressing challenges, and to anticipate key technology trends and breakthroughs.
As several of our contributors note, rail is enjoying a global renaissance and, at the same time, train operating companies and their stakeholders face a growing number of pressures and influencers:
• Train operators and politicians increasingly see connectivity as key to rail policy
• Customers’ hunger for internet access and information continues to grow exponentially
• Demand for train connectivity from rolling stock departments, to feed a range of real-time applications with the potential to boost safety, security and reliability
• The anticipated move to IP signalling is set to become an important variable
• Political and economic pressure to reduce energy consumption and curb emissions
• And, with operations and maintenance representing over 70% of total spend for train operators, attention is focused on driving efficiency and using fleets more smartly to achieve savings.
Platform is designed to highlight these issues and share valuable perspectives. Among the themes explored in this edition are the transformation of experience and skillset required by rail leaders during the last 20 years, and the important developments our industry is anticipating across the tele-maintenance and telemetry market.
To provide views and predictions on these critical topics, we have brought together an impressive selection of thought leaders from across our industry, coupled with some of Nomad’s own experts. As industry pioneers in rail connectivity and passenger and fleet applications, the Nomad team has a wealth of insight to share; they
Andrew Taylor CEO, Nomad Digital
combine a profound understanding of the issues I have highlighted, coupled with an innovative drive that is generating practical solutions for our customers and partners across the transportation sector. Of particular note in this edition is the prospect outlined for the ‘connected train’ of the future – a vision to which we are devoting much effort and ingenuity.
I hope you find plenty of inspiration and food for thought in these pages.
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Renaissance of rail Renaissance of rail
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Sustaining theRail is enjoying a global resurgence. How can the industry best maintain a popular edge over its airbound competition?
rail renaissance
Not so long ago, the air route between Madrid and Barcelona was feted as the world’s busiest. In 2007, some 700,000 passengers made the flight every month. Such was the shuttle’s popularity, it had dedicated terminals at each end of the route, with several flights taking off every hour. Today the service is much depleted. Since the launch of the Madrid – Barcelona high speed train service in 2008, more than 4m passengers have moved from air to train travel. Fewer than 200,000 passengers per month now choose to fly the route.
It’s just one example of the way that rail has become the dominant public transport mode for short-haul trips – reversing the position of 15 years ago, when air travel was seen as the ‘cool’ option.
Today rail companies across the world are responding to rising demand from leisure and business travellers. New customers are taking to rail in their thousands, driving new investments, introducing new players to the market, and placing rail high on the agendas of governments.
It’s fair to point out that this is, in part, a result of disillusionment among air travellers. Frequent delays and a lengthy, intrusive security process have become the norm. Reduced space on board, the withdrawal of complimentary in-flight services, and the still-prevalent inability to connect with the outside world while airborne – all combine to rob air travel of any remaining glamour.
At the same time, rail travellers have seen their experience improve. With on-board
WiFi becoming the norm, customers appreciate the ability to work or just surf the web throughout the journey. Even if the journey time is technically longer, the journey is effectively door-to-door, whereas airports demand out-of-town travel.
The growth of high-speed rail is accelerating this modal shift. The ability to travel at up to 155mph further cuts the travel time differential.
High-speed rail has other advantages too, not least environmental. A typical high-speed train emits 4kg of CO2 per 100 passenger kilometres, compared to an aeroplane’s 17kg. And trains are far more energy efficient, carrying 170 passengers per unit of energy (kwh). The equivalent in other modes is 39 car passengers and just 20 air travellers.
How can the rail industry seize the moment and ensure it remains the favoured option for customers?
H i g H s p e e d a n d s u s t a i n a b i l i t y r a i l
0607
1 exTernAl coSTSIndependently of the transport mode chosen, any passenger travelling is not paying the entire cost of his travel.Passengers pay the cost of the fuel, the maintenance (or the possession) of the vehicles, the cost of the infrastructure, the salary of the crew, etc.
But passengers don’t pay the cost of the noise, accidents, climatic change, etc., caused by their travel and to be paid by the Society.The cost non paid by the passengers but by the Society is named EXTERNAL COST.
1 econoMy Average external costs per transport modes (per 1,000 passenger-kilometres)
● Climate change (difference low/high scenario)● Climate change low scenario● Urban effects● Up and downstream processes● Nature & landscape● Air pollu�on● Noise● Accidents
e 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
$ 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
● Climate change (difference low/high scenario)● Climate change low scenario● Urban effects● Up and downstream processes● Nature & landscape● Air pollu�on● Noise● Accidents
UIC study on “High Speed Rail contribution to Environment and Sustainable Mobility” is available on the UIC-High Speed website:www.uic.org/highspeed
Source: www.uic.org/environment
C o m m e r C i a l a s p e C t s
Design concepts for high speed services
In terms of commercial concepts, a broad range of criteria may underpin high-performance passenger rail transport systems: l Marketing procedures including trademarks
and advertising l Information, reservation and ticketing systems l Ticket control (including the possibility of
access control) l On-board customer services, including WI-FI,
and computer aids l Post-travel services
1 ServiceS that high Speed can offer to cuStomerS: l Commercial speed l Frequency l Accessibility l Comfort l Attractive travel time (door to door) l Reliability l Price l Safety l Freedom (*)
(*) Freedom means that high speed rail is the only passenger transport mode in which it is not obligatory to be seated, use seat belts or listen to safety instructions. While travelling in a high speed train it is possible to stand or sit, walk around the train, have a coffee, work on a laptop or use a mobile phone at any time.
0
50
100
150
200
250
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
1 World high Speed traffic evolution
Japan (JR group)
Fiscal year
Billionpassengerskm
Korea (Korail)
China (Chinese Railways)
France (SNCF)
Germany (DB AG)
Spain (Renfe Operadora)Italy (Trenitalia)
Other European Companies
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp
Rome - NaplesRome - Milan
Madrid - BarcelonaMadrid - Seville
Cologne - FrankfurtParis - StuttgartParis - MarseilleParis - Brussels
Paris - Amsterdam
C o m m e r C i a l a s p e C t s
2021
pricing SyStemSHigh speed railway undertakings increasingly use variable prices for different types of service. Depending on motive (business or private), travel periods or other circumstances influencing demand, the prices offered (and the conditions of purchase) can vary considerably.
Various procedures, some imported from the airlines like “yield management” (which aims to the maximise the income per train), widespread use of the Internet, the use of “ticketless” procedures and the introduction of innovative ideas (like iD TGV in France) are consistent with the high-level technology used in trains, lines and signalling systems.
diStribution High speed travellers expect high speed access to information, reservation and fare transactions.
market Share If a new high speed rail system is well designed and implemented, customer response is, as a rule, very positive and traffic will reliably grow.
Traffic growth can be increased by the mobility gains created and the “network effect”. The consequence of the “network effect” is that the total number of kilometres of the network can be increased by 20% (as an example) and passenger traffic can increase by 100%.
Also, the introduction of a new high speed corridor varies the modal split.
deSign for cuStomerS New customer requirements demand new designs: working and meeting areas, spaces for families, full accessibility, special consideration for luggage (larger capacity for tourist trips, but limited spaces for business trips).
From the technical point of view, as more customers are using mobile phones and computers, new facilities such as electric plug sockets for power supply and on-board WI-FI are required.
before thalys
before ave
Train
Before high speed With high speed
Car Plane Coach
With thalys
With ave
1 Some exampleS of travel time reduction
1 Paris - Brussels 320km (200 miles)/1.25 hour
1 Madrid - seville 471km (295 miles)/2.15 hours
24 %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
33 %
50 %
84 %
61 %
67 %
43 %
16 %
7 %
2 %
8 %
5 %
UIC study on “High speed and territory management” is available on the UIC-High Speed website:www.uic.org/highspeed
Rome - NaplesRome - Milan
Madrid - BarcelonaMadrid - Seville
Cologne - FrankfurtParis - StuttgartParis - MarseilleParis - Brussels
Paris - Amsterdam
C o m m e r C i a l a s p e C t s
2021
pricing SyStemSHigh speed railway undertakings increasingly use variable prices for different types of service. Depending on motive (business or private), travel periods or other circumstances influencing demand, the prices offered (and the conditions of purchase) can vary considerably.
Various procedures, some imported from the airlines like “yield management” (which aims to the maximise the income per train), widespread use of the Internet, the use of “ticketless” procedures and the introduction of innovative ideas (like iD TGV in France) are consistent with the high-level technology used in trains, lines and signalling systems.
diStribution High speed travellers expect high speed access to information, reservation and fare transactions.
market Share If a new high speed rail system is well designed and implemented, customer response is, as a rule, very positive and traffic will reliably grow.
Traffic growth can be increased by the mobility gains created and the “network effect”. The consequence of the “network effect” is that the total number of kilometres of the network can be increased by 20% (as an example) and passenger traffic can increase by 100%.
Also, the introduction of a new high speed corridor varies the modal split.
deSign for cuStomerS New customer requirements demand new designs: working and meeting areas, spaces for families, full accessibility, special consideration for luggage (larger capacity for tourist trips, but limited spaces for business trips).
From the technical point of view, as more customers are using mobile phones and computers, new facilities such as electric plug sockets for power supply and on-board WI-FI are required.
before thalys
before ave
Train
Before high speed With high speed
Car Plane Coach
With thalys
With ave
1 Some exampleS of travel time reduction
1 Paris - Brussels 320km (200 miles)/1.25 hour
1 Madrid - seville 471km (295 miles)/2.15 hours
24 %
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
33 %
50 %
84 %
61 %
67 %
43 %
16 %
7 %
2 %
8 %
5 %
UIC study on “High speed and territory management” is available on the UIC-High Speed website:www.uic.org/highspeed
Alex Collart
Independent business consultant
The deregulation of the industry is set to increase competition. New entrants to the market will have the opportunity to create attractive new business models.
Further advances in the high-speed realm will help too. Speeds of up to 320mph will become a reality in the next few years, cutting journey times further. The standardisation of rolling stock, and the introduction of new braking systems and further environmental measures, should also seal rail’s competitive edge.
But rail operators cannot afford to relax and assume that passenger numbers will continue to rise at record-breaking levels. The wider industry must continue to focus on the customer experience, while continuing to improve safety, operational efficiency and environmental impact.
One of the strongest imperatives is the need to provide connected trains. The demand from passengers is strong – in many cases too strong for the available bandwidth to handle at present. As any operator will be aware, the availability and
performance of WiFi is a dominant feature of any customer survey, and the topic of many inbox complaints.
Governments are keen to promote connectivity too. For instance, German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt recently called for state-owned Deutsche Bahn to make free WiFi available on all regional and local train services. SNCF is tendering to equip France’s TGV services with WiFi. And in the US, federal changes to disability legislation include a requirement for new standards of passenger information on transport.
Connectivity isn’t just a boon for customers. Operations and maintenance teams know the value of being able to track each train’s status and to predict and address any technical issues efficiently. Developments in condition-based monitoring and maintenance will increasingly help operators to stay in control of their trains and target their resources more precisely.
Technology is one of the critical routes to success. That means partners such
as Nomad Digital will play a key role in supporting the industry’s expansion into the mid-century. Nomad’s profound knowledge of rail industry needs, and its innovative approach in fields such as WiFi, passenger information and telemetry, will develop the offering to travellers – and help to ensure this era of rail renaissance is an enduring one.
*Source UIC/Highspeed
Page title Departure points
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DEPARTURE POINTS AND FUTURE STOPSRailways were closely linked with telecommunications back in Stephenson’s day. Over the past 12 years, Nomad Digital has been working to reconnect the two. As company founder Nigel Wallbridge recalls, it hasn’t always been an easy ride.
My first disappointment came early. Having ‘invented’ the idea of a business to provide WiFi on trains, I rushed to the internet to see if anyone had already done it. It turned out that Shawn Griffin’s Canadian start-up Pointshot Wireless was already trialling systems on the Capital Corridor and Altamont Corridor trains in California.
Graeme Lowdon and I decided to press on with the business regardless. Pointshot was concentrating on satellite backhaul to the train; we thought we would focus on trackside networks.
Barely legal We felt we had some other advantages too. For one, I was based in Canada, where there was lots of WiFi technology. Graeme was in the centre of the global rail industry in Europe, where WiFi was largely unknown and not yet even legal (it was not until 2002 that then ‘e-Minister’ Stephen Timms declared WiFi legal in the UK ).
Nomad Digital was officially registered in 2002. In the early days, the response was patchy. We received great support from T-Mobile UK and great interest from operators such as Virgin Trains, Southern Trains and Eurostar. We started trials with Southern Trains on the London to Brighton line in in 2003. In January 2004, Eurostar announced it was seeking a supplier for passenger internet access.
But it was hard for anyone to take the risk of launching first. In the end it was our great
rivals, Icomera, who led the way in Sweden, and in the UK for GNER, with their hybrid satellite connected solution.
Felled by a trolleyOn-board WiFi became associated, at that time, with ‘the interiors’ part of the railway business, so the major forum for our infant industry was the Railway Interiors exhibition in Cologne. We thought we were transforming the whole railway industry – so it was disheartening to lose the Innovation of the Year award to a catering trolley.
Through the noughties it became clear that Nomad had become a very fortunate company. Its choice of trackside backhaul over satellite proved correct for the vast majority of railways. Because it had footholds in North America and Europe, it was able to take advantage of the characteristics of both markets.
Key customers included NS in Holland, NSB in Norway, Virgin Trains in the UK, Via Rail in Canada, Amtrak in the US and the remarkable Jim Allison at Capital Corridor, who had been there with Pointshot from the very start. They propelled our industry forward by partnering with, supporting and accepting Nomad for what it was – a highly innovative young start-up in a rapidly changing world.
When passenger WiFi started out you needed a laptop, and therefore a seat and a table, and possibly a power outlet, to use the service. The launch of the iPhone in June 2007 cemented WiFi as a preferred connection method for a new generation of ‘must-have’ compact mobile devices.
Making a connectionBut perhaps the luckiest part of the Nomad story is that the operational parts of the industry began to see, partly from the connections that passengers were beginning to enjoy, just how disconnected the
Nigel Wallbridge
Nomad co-founder
“ We thought we were transforming the whole railway industry – so it was disheartening to lose the Innovation of the Year award to a catering trolley. ”
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Departure points Departure points
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majority of train services were, and are. NS believed that passengers should have access to real-time ‘live’ passenger information. In Australia, Queensland Rail wanted live CCTV from the train.
Train operators came to see that many services could, and should, be connected. From seat reservation systems to remote condition monitoring of brakes, it became apparent that a connected train was cheaper to run, more reliable, higher capacity and offered passengers much improved services.
The Nomad story had become a significant part of a massive change in the railway industry, which sees spending on on-board systems rising at 15-20% per annum for the foreseeable future.
A wealth of expertiseNomad was able to respond to this demand for wider applicability of its networks because it was fortunate, yet again, to have employees who were immersed in rail technologies. We have always taken pride in our ability to marry the high-technology side of our business with people who understand train design, depots and maintenance routines.
We have people who can retrofit high technology systems on mid-life trains in many different countries. We have employees, such as the great Alan Rowe, who have spent their whole working lives in the rail industry; people from the earliest days of on-board connectivity such
as Matthew Gould, who worked with Pointshot; our first CEO, Caleb Carroll, had the skills to write our core software within a weekend: and today we have experts that can hold their own in discussing the most abstruse aspects of IP packets with the high-priests of Silicon Valley.
Global growthHugely stretched by the demand for its core WiFi product world-wide, Nomad responded to the emerging opportunities for operational services by acquiring related train technology businesses that could benefit by the switch to the connected train. It formed a joint venture called Nomad Tech with EMF of Portugal, to develop remote condition monitoring services for trains. It acquired Inova in Germany to provide sophisticated passenger information systems, and Commute Media in Denmark for its media distribution skills.
Today Nomad employs over 250 people worldwide and sees its business continuing to expand at an extraordinary rate. There is no slackening of pace. And still we have only scratched the surface of the global market. Some of the largest national rail markets, such as France, Germany and Japan, are just starting along the ‘connected train’ journey. On the day I was writing this article, SNCF had just announced an ambitious program to transform its business to ‘open up even more to the tech ecosystem’ through several big data and design initiatives.
Future evolutionThe preceding paragraphs perhaps paint too rosy a picture of a flawless wave of growth in rail connectivity on which Nomad has effortlessly surfed. Anyone who has been involved with this industry in the last 12 years knows that this is not the case.
The growing demand has created opportunities, but also stresses. The capacity demands placed on train connectivity have grown exponentially, and will continue to do so.
These demands are for passenger consumption and for operational applications – such as remote maintenance, CCTV and passenger information systems – as well as, potentially, safety critical applications. Many of these applications require only narrow band communication, but taken together they create a substantial demand.
How will the market evolve over the next decade? I see three key developments.
1. Increasing demand will push railways to consider installing their own networksMore and more people are using smart phones, with increasingly bandwidth- hungry applications. Annual data consumption per customer is expected to continue to grow by more than 50% over the next few years .
Not only are there more users using more services, but the bandwidth demand of each of these services increasing. The increase in the screen resolution from the iPhone 3 to the iPhone 4 increased the typical video bandwidth by a factor of four. Mobile phone networks simply do not, and will not, have the capacity to meet demand. So the train operators will have limited leverage with network operators to obtain services that meet their particular needs.
Prices are likely to rise to limit usage. As passengers regard connectivity as an ever more important element of their train journey, train operators may see the use of their own private networks as a key element in meeting customer demand.
In several ways railways are in a uniquely powerful position to lead the way in connected vehicles. The infrastructure of railways already tends to provide for connected vehicles:
• Railways are mobile, but they operate in a tightly defined and narrow geographic footprint. We know precisely where they can go.
• The vehicles are large, expensive, long lasting, intensively used and not huge in numbers. We are well able to install and upgrade high-quality communications on such vehicles and to reap returns from this equipment over four to five years. Compared to many other modes of transport, the economics work well.
• The fibre optic arteries that connect the communications networks of the world frequently travel along railway lines. In the boom of the 1990s, railways were almost gifted their share of the information superhighway (it’s a while since you heard that phrase) a few metres from where the trains run.
The main lack is the wireless connectivity from the trackside fibre to the train. To achieve this, railways need masts and power, as well as radios and the radio spectrum in which to run them.
Recent changes in the way that spectrum is being released by governments are beneficial to railways. For many of the reasons given above, railways are uniquely good at sharing spectrum with other users, perhaps in the defence or broadcast arenas. Railway trains are large enough, and contain sufficient people, to really benefit from multiple radio connections. If they have sufficient radios, they are able to mix and match radios depending on circumstances.
It may be, for example, that a train needs to switch off a radio near an airfield so it does not interfere with radar. This is no problem if the train can fall back on other radios. This is exactly the principle that Nomad uses already to provide broadband to trains: multiple radios that are switched on and off opportunistically, to make best use of what is available in any situation.
So we believe there will be a movement to the installation of trackside networks, connected to trackside fibre, to enhance the coverage available to trains.
2. Many different applications, perhaps including safety related signalling, will drive the growth of connections to trainsThe strange relationship between telecommunications and railways has deep roots. The first commercial electrical telegraph was patented in May 1837. And a system was successfully installed on a new Robert Stephenson railway between Euston and Camden Town in London on 25 July 1837. Now that is a short product development time! In more modern times, how many customers of the giant US telco Sprint realise that its name comes from its, now estranged, parent: Southern Pacific Railroad?
But recently the railway industry has seemed more divorced from telecommunications than ever. ‘I’m on a train’ means ‘I think mobile coverage is poor’.
SBB in Switzerland is the only large rail operator that I know has a data link to every one of its vehicles. On most of the world’s railways, the vehicles, perhaps the most important assets, are disconnected from the corporate network.
Beyond GSM-RAt the core of signalling for the last 20 years has been the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), which created a single, Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems. The project is regarded as one of the crown jewels of EU activity and receives massive funding.
Functionally, ERTMS comprises a signalling system (ETCS) and a communications system: GSM-R. GSM-R is, as its name suggests, a communications network based on the mobile network technology GSM, otherwise known as ‘2G’. GSM-R has its own licensed spectrum (Uplink: 876-880 MHz Downlink: 921–925 MHz), which is at the heart of the most valuable spectrum real estate in the world.
But GSM technology is already being withdrawn by mobile network operators as they have moved through several generations of radio technology to LTE and beyond. The end-of-life of GSM-R technology lies in the foreseeable, but perhaps not near future.
Many people in our industry are concerned that the replacement for GSM-R will have to be defined within the current decade and that the replacement system should be cheaper, and more effective than GSM-R has proved. They believe an increased proportion of COTS (commercial -off-the-shelf) equipment will be required in place of GSM-R’s highly specialised, industry-specific approach, and that the system should use IP.
“ Railways need to argue their case for a digital connection with passengers.”
Trials for proof of concept started in 2003 with Southern Trains on the London to Brighton line
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Departure points Helping travellers
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In the internet age, railways have become the land that IP forgot. And the dismally slow, expensive and frequently ineffective roll-out of modern in-cab signalling communication systems (PTC in North America and GSM-R in Europe and elsewhere) has testified to the railways’ telecommunications ineffectiveness.
But as I’ve described, railways do have some fantastic advantages in the digital age. We have only just begun to understand how digital technology will transform the railway industry in the same way that it has revolutionised others.
WiFi has proved to be just a start down the road to re-integration with telecommunications and networking. The demand for improved voice coverage is well known. Passengers want live, responsive passenger information; integrated ticketing systems and seat reservation systems. Marketing departments want to have loyalty programs. Operators want to know where their trains are; how crowded they are; what condition they are in. They want to reduce their energy bills by using driver advisory systems and energy monitoring. And in emergencies, they want live video coverage.
Perhaps we can shorten dwell times at stations to increase network capacity? Who knows the range of possibilities? We certainly are aware that we can monitor many more variables than we do now to improve services and reduce costs. But how will the railways adapt to the challenges of Big Data, Machine-to-Machine and the internet of things?
Nomad has responded to the strategic challenge of this breadth of opportunity by choosing a few areas in which to build capability. It remains highly focussed on maintaining its lead in core connectivity to trains, but has added state-of-the-art PIS (passenger information systems) through the acquisitions and joint ventures outlined earlier.
But there is still the additional question of signalling. Currently signalling is a much larger business in its own right than the entire on-board systems market, although it is not growing anywhere near as fast. In future, it may use IP (see opposite). It’s a big leap for any company to enter the safety-related space: one of the key issues for Nomad is whether, and how, to make that leap.
3. We will need to structure our business to work with mobile network operators
Is it the business of a train operator to make it easier for a passenger to use mobile services provided by a mobile network operator (MNO)? Or is the mobile service part of the bundle of offerings provided by the train operator?
In the UK recently a government minister became convinced that, as part of the policy to improve mobile broadband coverage, railways should be incentivised to make it easier for passengers to use their mobile phones everywhere. He really did not see that the railway had any role, except in removing the blockages caused by the fact that the customer was in a metal tube moving at 200kph in a remote location. For their part, the train operating companies felt they should have a deeper online relationship with the customer.
Understanding how MNOs and railways can work together to offer customers great services is a big issue that faces our growing industry. Railways need to make the case that they want to have a digital connection to their passengers. This is a given, of course, for the MNOs.
But there is another reason why MNOs have an important role for the railways. Only 30 years ago, the radio spectrum was dominated by broadcasters and government agencies such as defence
1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2045483.stm 16th June 2002 (accessed 5 January 2015)2 http://www.railwaystrategies.co.uk/article-page.php?contentid=6795&issueid=226 December-January 2009 (accessed 5 January 2015)3 http://www.rudebaguette.com/2015/02/10/sncf-launches-ambitious-transformative-digitalsncf-agenda 10th February 2015 (accessed 11th February 2015)4 http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white_paper_c11-520862.html 3rd February 2015 (accessed 11th February 2015)
Helping travellers to choose railLaurent Troger, Chief Technology Officer at Bombardier Transportation, outlines the challenges of keeping rail ahead of other modes in a dynamic transport sector.
Laurent Troger
Chief Technology Officer at Bombardier Transportation
Q What has been your career path to date?
A I started my working career as a system engineer in the defence sector, where I also developed my engineering background. Rapidly I ended up in railways – where the main focus was the arrival of electronics and software on board trains. I spent a number of years looking at global trends and introducing new technologies and capabilities into the train.
Since then I’ve enjoyed a number of different jobs in the sector – from engineering and marketing to sales, before proceeding to general management. In the rail industry, I’ve worked in all areas of the business, from equipment supply and propulsion, to design and new product development, signalling and train control. I then became involved in turnkey projects across all segments of the market – from trams to high speed.
I joined Bombardier Transportation around 10 years ago, leading the Services business.
As well as bringing a wide range of experi-ence to my new role as CTO, an important aspect that I have learned in my 25-year career – and incorporated within the vision for the function – is the need to differenti-ate products and services, not just vis-à-vis our competitors, but also in relation to the needs of our customers.
Q What are the challenges that you face in your role as Chief Technology Officer?
A The first challenge is managing the wide range of products and services that we offer today. The only downside of an extensive range is that you don’t necessarily make the best use of your capabilities. Therefore, my primary role is to rationalise and standardise the portfolio to make it more competitive.
Secondly, I intend to bring new skills into the organisation, to manage the various engineering capabilities collaboratively to develop the portfolio of tomorrow.
The third challenge is to bring a more proactive approach to innovation. Currently our investment is too reactive. I plan to ensure that product development investment takes place earlier so that it becomes part of the company’s DNA.
Innovation should not just be about technology for the sake of technology, but to provide higher value to customers. We need to truly shape our way of working to provide this to our customers, who in turn are looking for higher end-to-end value in their services. Although each customer has specific requirements, most are confronting the same type of challenges.
Q What are the biggest challenges facing railway technology companies?
A Driven by their goal to provide added value, our customers are also seeking a different type of business relationship from suppliers, which is less about specifying
what they want as a technical solution, but focuses attention on what they seek to offer to their passengers. This creates a need for us to work more proactively to identify our customers’ main business needs.
A solution is not just a product, but encompasses everything that surrounds it – maintenance, supply chain, training of drivers, integrated logistics support, passenger information etc. This provides a real opportunity for us to expand our products and services and offer more to train operators.
A further challenge is to bring these aspects together into a solution that maximises the carry-over of our current product portfolio. The reason for doing this is that it enables us to respond quickly and minimizes risk. If we can achieve this balance, it will be a significant competitive differentiator.
Q What do you look for in partners and suppliers?
A Clearly we are not in a position to develop all technologies by ourselves and therefore we need partners to support us. And in those partners, we seek certain characteristics.
Preferably, our suppliers need to be global. Our projects can be in São Paulo, Stockholm, Singapore, or London, so it helps if our suppliers are also global in their operations and supply chain. Also important is our suppliers’ ability to deliver – on time and to budget – as their ability to execute a project is critical to our own.
“ Innovation should not just be about technology for the sake of technology, but to provide higher value to customers.”
ministries. Now MNOs have entered the fray and hold some of the largest stocks of radio spectrum. Railways have lost their role as a key stakeholder in spectrum allocations. Even the limited stock of spectrum that railways hold is under pressure from other users. Railways need to stake their claim to spectrum; in doing so, they will have to reach an accommodation with the MNOs.
So MNOs want access to railway passengers, and the railways need spectrum from MNOs. An accommodation can be reached, but the railways need to wake up and argue their case. Railways also hold great real estate assets in this negotiation.
But the MNOs stand together, and have goal congruence. By comparison, railways look fragmented and unsure. Nomad is working to try to rectify this situation.
Disrupting an industryStarting out with a seemingly minor customer benefit offering, Nomad has helped highlight a major opportunity for the railways. Disruptive IP technologies will shape the industry in a profound way in the next 20 years.
The industry needs its own spectrum and trackside networking to ensure the best connection to trains. Signalling should be a part of the negotiations with MNOs, regulators and governments. It looks like it will continue to be an exciting ride.
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Helping travellers Helping travellers
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We are looking for suppliers that are innovation leaders and can create true differentiation in the market, which helps to set us apart from the competition.
Last, but not least, our partners need to share our ability to sustain the solution over the lifetime of the product, which is not an easy goal when looking at the lifetime of the train, which can be around 30 years.
Q Why is technology important for Bombardier?
A Technology is vital to stay ahead and improve our products and services offering. Operators today are much more entrepreneurial and have their own cost models. However, with any model, there are essentially two main elements – generating revenue and reducing costs.
When it comes to revenue, it is about optimising capacity and providing quality of service. In order to reduce costs, operators are focused on, for example, reducing track access charges, depreciation of rolling stock over its lifetime, etc.
Technology is an enabler to achieve the best solution to this equation – and it is evolving
so fast that you can quickly generate a significant improvement. For example, one of the major drivers for the customer is energy reduction, which is affected by many different factors. So we look closely at all the areas where we can reduce energy consumption on the train and focus on the ones that bring the most significant return.
Similarly, we are keen to explore any innovation in the market that might have a significant impact on revenue for the operators, in order to integrate them within our product. In short, innovation is the only way to remain the leader in the industry – it is a must.
Q How do you see the role of digital?
A Our customers, the train operators, are very focused on their passengers’ expectations. Passengers want to decide how they travel throughout their ‘A-Z’ journey, which is an increasingly individual decision. Within their journey there are a lot of factors, which affect the decision on how they choose to travel, such as cost, time and choosing from different service providers.
Web-based platforms provide passengers with the opportunity to compare the alternatives, such as the car, train, bus or bicycle.
As far as we are concerned, it is important that we can offer passenger information services that can be easily integrated within such web-based platforms. This ensures that our customers are in a position to offer relevant information to their passengers and in so doing we can hopefully help them to choose to travel by rail.
Public transportation is very complex and there are a lot of stakeholders. In addition to operators, this includes maintainers, dispatchers, emergency services, police etc. As we have experienced already with our BOMBARDIER ORBITA predictive maintenance tool, we manage a lot of information, which can be useful to these stakeholders.
Increasingly, we need to provide information in such a way that it can be shared and optimised by all these stakeholder groups in an integrated and efficient way to avoid disruptions. With the help of technology, information needs to be merged into one system so that
The BOMBARDIER ZEFIRO very high speed train
it can be distributed to relevant stakeholders. This is the arrival of ‘big data’ and represents a significant shift in how we manage information and how we bring it to the market.
Q How do you see digital helping passengers to choose the train as a preferred mode of transport?
A In terms of rail transportation, it is worth highlighting what we bring to the ‘A-Z’ journey.
First, we offer predictability. We know when trains will arrive and how long the journey will take, which is clearly important for people in their decision-making. In fact, rail is much more predictable than most other transportation means today – even the plane. A further advantage of rail is safety – it is one of the safest transportation modes. Plus rail is a very ‘clean’ way of transport-ing people, which is important to a lot of passengers. Trains are also very comfortable and a lot of people enjoy the fact that they can relax when they travel by train.
In most of the key areas – from safety to environmental performance - we perform
well, but can always improve. Not in order to compete against others in the rail sector, but so that we can remain ahead of other modes of transportation, such as the car, bus and plane. Transportation is a very dynamic sector, with, for instance, the intelligent car, car-sharing services and also new bike access initiatives being developed for city transportation. Therefore, we have to continue to progress and provide unique transportation solutions.
Passengers appreciate predictability. Digital technology helps us and all our stakeholders to deliver this. Our aim should be to have a truly great and predictable service.
Q What is the main challenge for the future?
A The challenge for tomorrow is to understand the mega trends in passenger communities, as they have a major impact on the way people manage their mobility.
There are two significant patterns. First, people are moving more. The second consideration, linked to this, is that they are making their individual decisions on how to travel far more quickly, which means the shape of competition is changing
“ Passengers appreciate predictability. Digital technology helps us and all our stakeholders to deliver this. Our aim should be to have a truly great and predictable service.”
dramatically and that time to react is shorter. This is why we – as a sector – need to act with a sense of urgency to offer continuous improvement to customers and passengers.
(left to right) BOMBARDIER FLEXITY 2 and INNOVIA family (metro 300, APM 300, monorail 300)
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Page title A new breed of leaders
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A NEW BREED OF LEADERSThe global rail industry has undergone a metamorphosis in the past 10 years. What does this mean for the people – and organisations – aiming to succeed in the new-look sector? Industry headhunter Iain Brockbank, of Warren Partners, offers some insight.
Today, rail experience is sometimes desirable, but rarely a critical qualification. The leaders sought by rail companies are as likely to come with a background in aviation, retail, defence, or the oil and gas sector.
It’s just one effect of the winds of change that have blown through the bastion of tradition that was the rail industry.
In part, the changes are influenced by the general air of volatility that has come to dominate the business scene since the financial crash.
But they are also driven by a huge investment in infrastructure across the world – from South America to India, from the UK to the Middle East – and by a new focus on collaboration and customer service.
Customer experienceThe latter point is a critical one. It seems counter-intuitive now, but the experience of the end user has not always led the industry’s agenda. Today, by contrast, there is a universal drive among industry leaders to make best use of the billions being invested to create a seamless, high-quality passenger experience.
Technology investment, which was woeful in the industry, is now being channelled to this cause. The UK’s cross-industry Rail Technical Strategy is a case in point, looking ahead 30 years with the aim of harnessing technology for a resilient, efficient, customer-focused rail service.
Yes, it’s about offering WiFi on the train, but it goes far beyond that. It seeks to enhance the rail user’s experience in the broadest possible sense, from the point they buy their travel tickets or park their car at the station.
People who are attuned to such initiatives – those able to innovate by bringing fresh thinking to practical issues – are much in demand. That’s why innovation is one of the skills that now features prominently in our search briefs. And it’s why rail companies are keen to draw talent from other industries, people who can breathe new ideas into the organisation.
Partnership approach
Relationship building is another skill that appears reliably among the criteria of hiring companies. Collaboration is now the name of the game. The old adversarial and ‘fractured’ culture dies hard, but those who adapt to this trend are reaping rewards.
For instance, when Transport for London tendered for the £600m project to extend the Northern Line, they put a strong emphasis on collaboration in the belief that this approach was more likely to generate innovation. The Laing O’Rourke/Ferrovial JV successfully captured this imperative in their bid. This focus is likely to be apparent with further major projects including when HS2 is tendered.
Likewise, alliance building is a key industry theme, requiring leaders able to work across old established ‘divides’, creating shared goals and a sense of common purpose.
No player in the industry can afford to ignore the need for partnership working, including the increasing need to ‘get things done’ within a wide range of political and commercial interests. Leaders today need to work effectively within a complex network of stakeholders: national and local government; infrastructure owners; unions; contractors; consultants – ensuring that relationships remain strong and that goals are aligned.
International outlookToday’s successful leader is also one with a global perspective. The international nature of many operators’ businesses makes that unavoidable. The trend towards interoperability, as embodied in ERTMS and similar initiatives, underlines the breakdown of national borders in the industry.
Candidates who are culturally aware and adaptable enough to work comfortably in different territories are in high demand.
Multi-lingualism doesn’t hurt, either: the rail industry is increasingly taking a cue from leading business schools, which often require MBA students to learn a second language as part of their courses.
Quest for diversityRail companies are increasingly looking to make their top layers more diverse. As a headhunter I sometimes challenge our clients about whether they are casting
their net widely enough to ensure diversity (another word rarely heard in the industry only a decade ago).
This is not simply about achieving a representative mix of leaders in terms of gender and ethnicity – though these are certainly important.
Diversity is a pre-requisite to the fresh thinking I mentioned earlier. It incorporates diversity of thought and thought leadership, as well as background and experience. It requires an assessment of candidates’ values and characteristics, to ensure the broadest possible outlook in the boardroom and the executive suite.
In outlining this new landscape, I don’t wish to dismiss the value of longstanding rail industry experience and knowledge. Increasingly, however, even ‘technical’ roles, including Engineering Directors, must demonstrate a full range of leadership qualities such as those I’ve mentioned – and many do. Those retaining a ‘traditional approach’ may need to augment their expertise with new skills, or risk being left behind.
Successful businessesThis applies as much to companies as to individuals. The cast of players in the global industry has changed considerably. Today’s successful businesses, and those who are most attractive to the strongest leaders, are those which have brought fresh ideas to the market.
The wealth of investment is luring in new players both large and small. This is certainly the case with technology companies. Smaller suppliers are making an impact, benefiting from their agility and flexibility. Those that prosper will show they can develop solutions that meet real customer needs, rather than clever technology for its own sake.
The direction of travel is clear. For individuals and businesses alike, the key qualities for success in tomorrow’s industry are innovative thinking, a flair for building strong partnerships and stakeholder relationships, an international outlook and, above all, an unrelenting focus on improving the experience of rail travellers.
Like all change, this is a revolution that some will find uncomfortable. But it’s making our industry an exciting place to work.
Iain Brockbank
Industry headhunter,Warren Partners
‘Essential: 15 years’ rail experience.’ I remember a time when this was invariably the top line of the person specification for any rail leadership role.
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Page title Page title
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Remote intelligence Remote intelligence
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Remote Intelligence
Adriano da Silva Carvalho
Professor at Porto Engineering School and Head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Porto University
How did you first get involved with EMEF and Nomad Digital?
As a professor at Oporto Engineering School, I started working with EMEF and Portuguese Railways (CP) in 1999 in the railway maintenance engineering and power electronics areas. Together we carried out several studies and projects. From this win-win partnership some of our students were hired to build the Railways Innovation Business Unit at EMEF.
Was there one, single project that started your investigations?
The very first project involved Remote Online Condition Monitoring (ROCM) applied to a Diesel Single Unit, which introduced ROCM across the Portuguese Railways fleet between 1999 and 2004. Together with EMEF and CP, we supported a study.
Our collaboration with them has continued successfully since then. In 2010 we started a power traction converter technological upgrade for the Sintra Line, which is now in its final stage of testing on commercial service.
How has the marriage of ICT enablement and ROCM changed the ways operators now run their fleets?
The integration of modern maintenance strategies and technologies – such as RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) and ROCM technology – has been used for asset management and condition monitoring in many demanding industrial activities, including aviation, manufacturing, the power and chemical industries and offshore oil platforms.
The challenge was to make it work in the highly demanding rail environment. At the same time, it was a great opportunity to integrate geographically distributed and moving systems, processes and heterogeneous data for asset management.
This is in fact a strong trend in the rail market. Many operators have successfully implemented solutions that allow them to know, more or less in real time, where their trains are, their journeys, how fast they are going, and in what conditions. With the ability to track the main potential failure modes, they can see how individual systems and components in every train are performing. These powerful capabilities can be used by both operators and maintenance providers.
As to the advantages... well, the results speak for themselves. The main rolling stock KPIs, such as the RAMS parameters (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) can be optimized. Since the pioneering application of RCM and ROCM to the Pendolino fleet in Portugal, for example, it shows improvements of 20% in availability and 50% in reliability.
Are people fully aware yet of the role that ROCM can play within the global rail industry?
On average around 60% of rolling stock lifecycle cost relates to its maintenance. New maintenance strategies such as RCM, together with the ROCM tools and technology, are being widely adopted by the main operators and maintainers. OEMs are also aware of their potential.
As demand grows for higher availability and reliability, and as operators face more penalties for failing to meet requirements, ROCM is likely to be crucial for the future of the rail sector, enabling operators to anticipate events that directly affect their operation. A further benefit is less well known: if ROCM is implemented properly, using methodologies such as Reliability Centered Maintenance to support it, it can create a culture shift and add huge value to employees in the maintenance department.
Extending the life span of train equipment is a tremendous advantage of using RCM and ROCM. That implies a change from the classic way of performing maintenance to a condition-based approach. We´re seeing the first big operators, such as NSB, DBS and SJ, following this strategy.
What effects will passengers see?
I believe that as travelling by train improves even further, consumers will see its benefits and embrace it more and more.
More reliable and punctual services will attract more people to trains. In turn, digital marketing and entertainment solutions will become more attractive for both train operators and marketing and content providers.
There are businesses models where marketing and entertainment solutions are the drivers for operational projects to enhance the railways system life cycle cost.
That makes it critical not just to provide an excellent quality of service in terms of availability and punctuality, but also to improve the customer experience. Passengers will appreciate extra comfort, more information about the service and on-board entertainment systems. It is in these areas that I see savings being applied to benefit consumers.
In 2013 Nomad Digital created a joint venture with EMEF, Portugal’s leading rail maintenance provider, in response to rising demand for telemanagement solutions. Professor Adriano da Silva Carvalho of Porto University, who advises the partnership, outlines its progress to date.
“ Extending the life span of train equipment is a tremendous advantage of using RCM and ROCM. That implies a change from the classic way of performing maintenance to a condition- based approach. ”
We live in the connected age. At home, at work, on the street, technology links us to friends, business and the wider world. But when we step into the transport system, the connection is all too often snapped. Dependable on-train WiFi is fast becoming an expectation rather than an extra, and passenger information systems are growing ever more sophisticated. But as every train traveller knows, it’s still impossible to enjoy seamless connectivity and personalised information throughout a complex journey.
I believe the potential benefits of such a breakthrough are enormous, for rail operators as well as passengers.
One man’s journeyPicture this scenario. Checking his phone as he approaches the station, a commuter receives a message from the train operator: his regular service is due on platform 2 in four minutes. That leaves time to take advantage of the special breakfast deal in the café, including his favourite roll – a separate message has alerted him to that.
Once on the train, the commuter remains connected as he downs his coffee. He catches an episode of a TV show using Netflix. Meanwhile, messages keep him up to date with his connection time and platform.
His second train is run by a different operator, but his online service continues unbroken. During this leg of the journey he gets update information on taxi availability at his destination. He also receives a message about forthcoming concerts that reflect his musical tastes.
All the while, information about this commuter’s journey and those of his fellow passengers are being gathered by the train companies involved. They’ll use it to hone and improve their services, and to tailor the communications they send to customers’ hand-held devices.
Some data is also supplied to third-party media companies, allowing for the usual privacy safeguards, so that they too can offer targeted messages – for instance on entertainment and refreshment options.
Hidden benefitsMeanwhile, technology has smoothed our commuter’s journey in other ways unknown
to him. The first train he travels on might have been cancelled, if not for the vigilance of a condition-based monitoring system that spotted a potential fault in the set that was scheduled to run on the service. And the toilet he uses on the second train was only usable because the same system alerted staff to a flushing fault that was swiftly fixed.
This scenario demonstrates how improved connectivity might go beyond delivering a much improved experience for the increasingly data-hungry consumer. It could also enable the industry to harvest rich data on passenger behaviour to inform decisions on service development.
At present, a train operator’s knowledge of any passenger is limited to that part of their journey in which he or she uses one of its trains. Even then, the data is often very limited in scope and difficult to validate: the relationship between the purchaser of the ticket and the actual passenger and the actual journey undertaken is not always clear.
The ability to mine, validate and aggregate the data of all travellers would provide the bigger picture on full journeys – from inter-city to local, from
train to metro. It would enable the industry to take a more strategic view of route and service potential. and begin to offer a more tailored portfolio of services to the individual traveller.
So what are the prospects of achieving this fully connected transport world any time soon?
Innovation is keyCentral to the viability of the vision will be the ability to maintain an appropriate level of network throughput, and to be able to guarantee a robust signal in every location. Anticipated developments in LTE and 5G technologies suggest this may be a realistic possibility within the next five years.
However, cost will naturally be a factor. There’s a real risk that the availability of technology will outstrip the economic ability of the mobile network operators to provide it to a wide audience, unless unit costs are dramatically reduced. The WiFi and transport sectors will need to innovate hard and fast if these goals are to be reached quickly and bring the promised benefits. At Nomad, we’re dedicating a lot of time to developing some of the hardware and
EnhancedPassengerServices
Reap the rewards
software platforms that will be required to turn the promise into reality.
As an example, our OBIS (on board information system) product – currently in development and targeted to be generally available later in 2015 – offers a glimpse of the future in terms of passenger communication.
As it stands, the system delivers live information on arrival times, schedule changes and other important messages, as well as news and entertainment feeds. But it can be tailored to the needs of each operator, and is designed with an eye to adaptation as the technology advances.
Over time, for instance, the big fixed screens through which many passengers currently receive their journey information will become less significant, as more passengers turn to their personal devices for tailored information. OBIS has the potential to simultaneously serve that big-screen market while delivering more personalised messages to the devices of individual travellers.
Beyond basic route and schedule information targeted at all passengers, OBIS will be able
to deliver personalised journey, service and sales information of the kind offered to our breakfasting commuter in the scenario above.
Monitoring the fleetDeveloping in tandem with this are improvements in the technology for condition-based monitoring and maintenance of trains. While it might not benefit customers directly, this form of connectivity has the potential to improve customer services, by cutting operator costs and promoting more reliable services.
CBM technology is in its relative infancy. But some operators are gaining from the ability to see real-time data about the condition of key fleet components such as brakes, engines and traction control. In future, that is likely to extend to many on-board facilities such as toilets – where faults are a common source of customer dissatisfaction.
By targeting maintenance work where and when it is needed, operators gain several advantages over the traditional method of
servicing each train set at a regular interval. There are clear operational and cost benefits. And CBM systems’ predictive capabilities can allow operators to make a planned substitution of sets and avoid what might otherwise have been an unforeseen breakdown.
As this technology becomes more entrenched, the data collected could allow for easier benchmarking of performance against that of other, similar fleets. If brakes are consistently wearing more quickly, for instance, it should be possible to establish and address the cause, whether it relates to driver habits, the quality of components or even the condition of the track infrastructure.
Above all, selective monitoring allows operators to save on unnecessary maintenance and reinvest funds into services.
Threefold benefitAlthough connectivity of the train to the wider world brings very visible and immediate benefit to passengers via WiFi services,
this is not its sole raison d’être.
Connected trains provide the operator with the potential to introduce many more additional passenger services, both generic and personalised. As well as potentially increasing revenue opportunities, these can help build a much closer relationship between the operator and the passenger, bringing subsequent benefits in improved passenger experience and brand loyalty.
Finally, it is an enabler for core enhancements in operations reliability and predictability, while reducing costs. Although the mechanics of this are naturally opaque to the passenger, the resulting improvements become very visible: in the perceived quality of train facilities, such as toilets that always flush, and in the reduction of mechanical malfunctions cited for delayed or cancelled trains.
If it’s to take full advantage of accelerating connectivity technology, the rail industry needs to support innovation and embrace the vision of the connected train.
FleetManagementServices
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Reap the rewards
Reap the rewardsof connectivity
New advances in connectivity will benefit rail travellers – and not just by allowing them to stay in touch while on the move. The rail industry can deliver multiple gains for customers by embracing WiFi technology in smart ways, argues Alf Pilgrim, Chief Technology Officer at Nomad Digital.
Alf Pilgrim
Chief technology officer at Nomad Digital
The Networked Train
• Cellular• Satellite• Trackside• WiFi / WCB
• Passenger infotainment• CCTV• Remote condition monitoring• PTC / ERTMS support
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