The rails on which our trains run will move into the digital age.
The railway is a technology that has accompanied human societies for some time now. But its attractiveness does not seem to be declining, especially at a time when the use of other means of transport is questioned. Thus, whether to transport passengers or goods, manufacturers are developing new projects to enable trains to meet the needs of the decades to come.
Turn the rail into an Ethernet cable
It is especially to the rails that the French multinational Alstom will make improvements. It wants to improve an essential component, which has existed for more than 100 years, and which makes it possible to monitor the state of the tracks and the movement of trains. The analog device currently in place, and whose technology dates back to the 1970s, circulates an electric current in the rails. It can thus detect the position of a train within a radius of three kilometers, while allowing a tiny data rate.
The new layouts developed by Alstom use a digital system, capable of locating trains with greater precision, on the order of a kilometre, and with much higher speeds. For Jeff Baker, manager at Alstom, ” it’s a bit like going from telegraph to ethernet cable. We basically turned the rail itself into an Ethernet cable. »
Meeting demand and increasing security
This progress aims to meet two needs, the first being the increase in rail traffic. If passenger transport could experience growing demand, it is above all freight that is seeing its activity grow. However, the number of trains on the same track can quickly be restricted for security reasons. For Alstom, the more accurately we can detect the position of vehicles, the more we can circulate on each lane without sacrificing the safety aspect. Thus, it is possible to increase traffic and satisfy demand.
In terms of security, the manufacturer intends to go even further. With higher data rates, it will be possible to collect more statistics about the devices in circulation. The temperature of the wheels, the condition of their bearings and any faults can be monitored in order to carry out preventive maintenance, thus avoiding delays or even accidents. In addition, these new locations should help the deployment of autonomous trains that the company is currently experimenting with on the French network.
The railway put to the test of globalization and global warming
In the year 2021, in the United States, a train suffered a violent derailment which killed three passengers. The accident was reportedly caused by rails warped by extreme heat. Baker explains that ” there is a phenomenon called “sun kink”, where the rail gets very hot and breaks “, adding that” with this technology we can start predicting when these things are going to happen “. For the industrialist, this is all the more essential at a time when the intense heat waves that follow one another weaken the rail network and require increased monitoring.
The division supplying this new technology, based in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, France, has begun installing these new circuits for markets around the world. Following a trend at Alstom, this division is recording an increase in sales, demonstrating that the railway is as much a technology of the past as it is of the future.
Source : Forbes
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