Nokia and Altran introduce joint solution to streamline train maintenance for railways

Nokia and Altran, a global leader in Engineering and R&D services (ER&D), are launching a jointly developed solution to optimize and streamline the maintenance of rolling stock for railway operators. This solution combines Nokia’s strengths in Internet of Things (IoT), networking and analytics with Altran’s strength in application development, analytics and system integration for railway operations.

Maintenance represents the biggest single operational cost for railway operators, constituting roughly 50 percent of their total operational expense. The maintenance applications railway operators have historically relied on are designed to support rolling stock only from individual manufacturers, making maintenance of their assets cumbersome and costly. The joint solution from Altran and Nokia is designed to provide predictive maintenance support for rolling stock from all manufacturers, dramatically reducing maintenance overhead for railway operators.

The solution incorporates smart sensors to monitor and gather data on the condition and performance of rolling stock, the wireless network and IoT connections to aggregate and transmit data. It’s a scalable, adaptive IoT platform to manage the wide variety of sensors and other devices required, and an advanced analytics engine to interpret data and recommend preventative maintenance measures. Together, these capabilities can deliver up to a 30-percent improvement in train reliability, a 20-percent reduction in delays and cancellations and a 10-percent reduction in maintenance man-hours.

This agreement builds on Nokia’s strong track-record providing mission-critical networks to railway operators. It also highlights the progress of Nokia’s strategy of expanding its customer base outside of the traditional telecommunications sphere, a key focus of the company’s diversification efforts.

Jochen Apel, global transportation segment leader at Nokia, said: “Unexpected failures in rolling stock have a huge impact on the operational performance of rail operators. The traditional way of overcoming this is to perform heavy preventative maintenance. The revolutionary approach the Nokia and Altran are taking can greatly reduce this effort and deliver significant cost savings to railway operators.”

Mike Greenan, Rail & Transport Global Industry Director at Altran, said: “Predictive maintenance is an opportunity for new and for legacy trains. The combination of Nokia and Altran can help introduce and take advantage of modern technologies to increase the operational performance of the train.”