Rail

Urban transport dynamics: the world’s urban population is growing rapidly, concentrating 4.2 billion individuals in 2018 compared to 751 million in 1950 (UN number). Investments in the public transport sector are therefore increasing significantly in order to provide faster and more reliable intra-agglomeration and intercity transport solutions.

As a result of this demand, the annual growth of the world industrial rail market is estimated at 3.2% by 2021.

Challenges:

• Increase the capacity of existing lines (CBTC, automated underground lines, etc.)
• Develop international industrial competitiveness
• Diversify and adapt the product offer to local markets (e.g. high speed in China)

The integration of digital technologies in the rail sector will make it possible to manage increasingly complex traffic flows, ensure the interoperability of different transport models (smartcity) and improve safety and passenger comfort. At the same time, advances in predictive maintenance will improve equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs.

The SNCF believes it can save 1.5 billion euros between 2015 and 2020 via industrial IoT.

Challenges:

• Connect digital and IT skills (Big Data, Cloud, Cybersecurity…) to the specificities of the rail sector and its regulations
• Ensure the security of critical data and systems and improve the available data processing
• Integrate new transport solutions (electric bus, car sharing, etc.)

Massive urbanization, the need for interoperability between the various European countries in order to respond to the opening of competition, and the electrification of rail lines for carbon-free transport, require huge investments in the renovation and creation of new rail infrastructures.

By 2030, over 123,000 km of the European rail network will be equipped with the ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) signalling system. In France, 46 billion euros will be invested over 10 years in order to modernize and ensure rail network safety.

Challenges:

• Ensure an increasingly stringent safety requirement (SIL4)
• Supporting the upgrading of the rail network (ERTMS)
• Anticipate technological obsolescence (e.g.: GSM-R vs LTE/5G)