In the dawn of the 9-Euro ticket: My 9 reasons why we need to digitalize the railways – now!

Never have more people and more goods needed a ‘Digital Railway’ for transportation at a lower cost to the environment.????

Our cities are expanding rapidly, and passenger demand is set to triple in the next 30 years from 44 trillion to 122 trillion passenger kilometers. As we do not want to see these additional 78 trillion passenger kilometers leading to even more traffic jams, #rail must be the number one choice of transport mode. Only with rail we will be able to meet the growing demand for mobility and at the same time achieve our climate targets.

This is why many countries have taken steps to make public transport more attractive for passengers. If we take my home country Germany as an example, due to high fuel prices, our federal government agreed a 9-Euro monthly ticket that enables unlimited travel on local, regional rail and tram services over the summer. Using this ticket is proving very popular especially at weekends when the sun is shining, and people are eager to travel once more after the pandemic. This shows a desire and willingness for affordable rail travel with a simple all-inclusive end-to-end journey tariff.

In fact, being affordable alone does not do the trick. Rail travel must also be convenient and reliable. And this is where digitalization comes into play.

Siemens Xcelerator – one big step on the way to digitalize railways

The launch of the Siemens Xcelerator in June was a big step, but also the beginning of a new journey on our way to digitalize railways. Siemens Xcelerator will create the digital backbone and help us to form one open, horizontal and vertical rail ecosystem for everyone. It will unite our rail systems which have become a complex patchwork of operators and freight services using a wide variety of rolling stock, software and hardware, signaling, customer and rail information on every journey. By providing open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Siemens Xcelerator will open sub-systems to connect hardware and software, connecting all the different participants of our mobility eco-system such as asset owners, operators, maintainers, and for sure passengers. This is our promise for the future.

In my opinion, there are two different groups that benefit the most from Siemens Xcelerator within the railway industry. On the one hand, the asset owners, operators, and maintainers benefit because by connecting all assets in one big ecosystem, they will be able to manage all their assets centrally, no matter who manufactured them.

On the other hand, the ecosystem benefits the passengers because they will get much better information about what is going on within the train, for example about the occupancy rate of each train. When all assets are connected, this will also enable passengers to rebook their tickets on the spot at a lower price and for an emptier train. And this is made possible via dynamic pricing because operators can lower the ticket prices for empty trains in order to distribute occupancy more evenly.

So, by connecting the outside world to the inside of a train, our industry will be able to work together with the ultimate goal of making public transport even more attractive and efficient.

?While the introduction of the 9-Euro ticket shows why digitalizing the railways is necessary, the launch of Siemens Xcelerator shows us how this digitalization can be brought to the next level. So, being inspired by the 9-Euro ticket, I am writing here about my 9 reasons why we need to go all in to digitalize our railways.

9 reasons to digitalize now?

?1. Growing demand: Global passenger numbers are set to triple in the next 30 years. We need urgent digital changes to ensure we deliver the capacity to match this demand because rail is the most sustainable option if we are to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2050. For example, with digital interlockings and Automatic Train Operation, we enable up to 30% more trains to run on the same line and thus transport 30% more passengers and freight safely.

?2. Demand is changing: Traditionally passenger movements were more predictable, for example rush hour spikes and peaks around holiday seasons. Post-pandemic, it fluctuates and is difficult to forecast. This is a challenge for operators, but it can also be turned into an opportunity to reach better average occupancy. Before Covid, trams and subways in Germany had an average capacity utilization of 18%, whereas mainline reached 55%. Still, we all remember situations where trains were completely overcrowded.

Managing capacity and distributing it evenly throughout the day and week can only be optimized through live digital solutions, for instance dynamic pricing. This means that ticket prices are lowered in order to fill trains that still have capacity and that otherwise would run empty. So, with dynamic pricing, operators will be able to offer more attractive deals for customers and at the same time balance demand and supply better to reduce peak-time-occupancy. Siemens Xcelerator plays a huge role here because it enables managing all available information (for example past data, trip planning requests, seat reservations and so on) within one system. Using algorithms, the operator can predict future occupancies, change prices accordingly and also adapt resource planning.

?3. Optimize capacity: Less is sometimes more. Building new rail routes or adding more trains onto crowded networks is not always the best solution. It can lead to disruption and make journeys less appealing to passengers. One solution to optimize capacity is Automatic Train Operation that uses data from infrastructure, track, and train schedule information to calculate the ideal speed profile for current conditions at any given time. This enables up to 30% more throughput on shared tracks, 15% better punctuality and 30% less energy usage.

?4. Reduce pain points (Digital Infrastructure): Making infrastructure digital or cloud-based takes away the need for a lot of equipment alongside the tracks and can thus prevent shutdowns. For example, in Germany, there are today 2800 interlocking locations, 160,000 signals and 400,000 kilometers of cables spread along the routes. These are all parts that can fail leading to disruption.

Implementing European Train Control System (ETCS) as the only signaling technology will make signals redundant. In a next step, we can then move the infrastructure into the cloud. With that technology, shutdowns can be prevented with geo-redundancy, and it will save up to 50% in space and energy consumption. Moreover, when eliminating hardware obsolescence by moving the infrastructure into the cloud, the 40-year-propriarty spare part supply will be resolved.

5. Optimize lifecycle costs: Operating and maintenance costs of the running gear make up around 40% of the total operating costs of a train. This is a huge lever when we want to optimize lifecycle costs. With Railigent, built-in connectivity and services combine sensors and data analytics to automatically perceive the condition of the assets and trigger corresponding actions. In fact, algorithms can detect impending faults before they actually occur. On the basis of these analyses, each train knows exactly when it has to return to the depot so that failures do not occur during operation. This technology reduces unnecessary service and at the same time decreases unplanned downtimes by up to 50%, thereby enabling up to 100% availability.

Railigent is also one part of Siemens Xcelerator where customers highly benefit from our data analytics. They do not have to develop their algorithms themselves but can rely on ours by using plug-and-play.

?6. Manage all assets centrally: As described before, trains should be intelligent and talkative vehicles with sensor data continuously recorded to enable predictive maintenance in the depot. On the Thameslink route in the UK for example, we analyze up to 4bn data points per year to enable anomaly detection and predictive services. 40% of the work orders are created by the train and then automatically scheduled.

However, what do the respective asset owners, operators, or maintainers do with that information and how do they analyze it? At the moment, they often need one asset management system per train manufacturer. With Siemens Xcelerator and by creating open APIs, they will be able to manage all their assets centrally, no matter from which supplier they are.

?7. Convenience for passengers: Fully occupied trains are great for the environment and the operator. But overcrowded trains result in a bad experience for the passenger. At the same time, empty trains are a waste of resources and make operators unprofitable. In order to change that, optimizing capacity utilization is a huge lever.

The basis for this is live data about occupancy and this is where Siemens Xcelerator comes into play enabling seamless data flow between all assets. For example, based on the weight of each wagon, the occupancy can be measured. This data is already available today via sensors. However, by connecting that information to trip planning systems, operators will be able to make them available also to the passenger so that based on that, they can make informed decisions on whether they want to take that train or rather wait for the next one that is emptier.

?8. Seamless journey: Plan. Book. Pay. Ride. Passengers need one source of trip planning and booking, from e-bike to the station, train from the station, and then bus or tram to finish their journey, because they do not travel from station to station, they travel from door to door. Therefore, we are pushing for seamless journeys. This is one of the reasons for the success of flat rate tickets such as the monthly 9-Euro ticket in Germany, a daily 3-Euro ticket (1095-Euro per year) in Austria, or any other flat rate ticket. Apart from the price, people like them because with these tickets, they can avoid searching for information about the fare system in the respective region and for the respective mode of transport.

In order to reach seamless door-to-door travelling, data sharing across different operators is crucial. As a passenger, I need to know what the best way is to travel to my destination, and these data must be live so that I can easily change my mind and switch to another mode of transport. Siemens Xcelerator can help in that regard because all data are available in one place. Let us take the example of an e-scooter provider that operates in different countries. Imagine we already integrated the data of that company into Siemens Xcelerator in one city or one country. This makes scaling much easier because in a next step integrating those data also in another location is much faster than if the transport operator in that new location would have to do it himself, starting from scratch.

?9. Connected ecosystem: We need to connect the numerous participants of the mobility eco-system within one open ecosystem that delivers a punctual, comfortable, reliable, and easy-to-use transportation system. Today there is a variety of trains, infrastructure, operators, hardware, software, and apps almost competing individually against each other. One open platform working together will allow operators to have access to all relevant information in order to optimize the rail journey for their passengers.

One major advantage of Siemens Xcelerator is the seamless data flow between all layers of the railway ecosystem. That means that for example, when the asset management solution of the asset owner predicts a failure, this information automatically also triggers other processes. The train schedule is adapted in order to allow for repair time, and tickets as well as reservations are automatically being rebooked.?

These are my 9 reasons why we need to digitalize the railways and I am sure you can think of even more. I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and hopefully seeing you at InnoTrans from 20-23 September in Berlin. This is where we will showcase all of these digital solutions with the icing on the cake of Siemens Xcelerator on top following the motto #DestinationDigital.?