Hitachi Rail is installing its cutting-edge live monitoring solution across Great Western Railway’s high-speed fleet of 93 intercity trains, in a world-first for digital maintenance. This technology will boost fleet availability by over 100 days per year. This will be the first time Hitachi’s ‘Perpetuum Onboard’ wireless technology will monitor the full-suite of wheelset and bogie parts on high-speed passenger trains.
Wireless sensors are being attached to live monitor the entire wheelsets and bogies, allowing real-time data of gearboxes, traction motors, bearings and wheels. This will deliver significant benefits to passengers and train operators, including boosted train availability, improved safety, and reduced maintenance costs.
At present, bogie overhaul accounts for about a third of maintenance costs, with trains requiring an average of seven days to carry out manual inspection or component replacement in a depot.
Digital monitoring of bogies and wheelsets can replace periodic inspections, reducing bogie overhaul downtime by up to 50%. On the GWR fleet of 93 trains, this will deliver over 100 extra days of train availability every year. Across the lifetime of the fleet, this will deliver in excess of 3,100 days of train availability. This ensures trains spend more time carrying passengers, and less time in the depot.