In a modern train such as the SNG (CAF Civity-platform) of the Dutch railway company NS, there are thousands of sensors that collect billions of pieces of data every day. Besides allowing trains to run well and ensuring the functioning of all systems onboard, much more can be done with the data, believes NS, such as preventing defects or fixing those that do occur.
For many years, the breakdown service of car manufacturer Tesla has viewed a car’s technology from a distance, erasing defect reports and where necessary loading software updates. In theory, it is possible to do the same with trains, but until now this has been nothing but a distant dream. “We all look at the systems to be able to make the right diagnosis and then support train personnel to solve defects”, explains Falco Mooren, Project Manager at NS Techniek, the technical division of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS). “But the risk of cyberattacks is too great to make changes remotely, digitally, to a train that is on the tracks.”
Seven systems
Yet Falco Mooren does not rule out this happening in future. “You can do an incredible amount with the data that you can get out of a train and can feedback into it. But you need to decide where to start.” At NS, the first plans to use train data for hardware maintenance and repair emerged in 2016. The idea of doing this is of course not new. Almost every rolling stock manufacturer can deliver a related system to monitor their product. But a generic system for all locomotives and carriages that the NS began using was new.
“Every supplier has their own solution, but we have hardware from seven different manufacturers”, explains fleet analyst Marco Schulte. “It’s impossible to work with seven different systems. That’s why, back in 2016, we launched a European tendering process for an overarching system. The contract was won by Irish company Trimble, and we developed a system together with them. We worked with existing components as much as possible, but some components had to be specifically built for NS.”
According to Mooren and Schulte, it was impossible to adopt a complete, existing system from abroad that was suitable for rail companies. “It turns out that here in the Netherlands we are far ahead of other countries and operators, so there was nothing out there that met our needs.” Besides Trimble, other companies including CGI, IBM, NOMAD, KPN, Ricardo Rail and Strukton were involved in the project. ”In total, we worked with seventeen suppliers from fifteen different countries.” The first trains were coupled to the system in 2018.