Do digital twins change the game for the railway industry?
The railway industry is facing numerous challenges that require innovative solutions. Digital twin technology has emerged as a potential solution to help the railway ecosystem revolutionise operations and meet the challenges it faces.
What is a digital twin?
Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical assets that are created using real-time data and advanced analytics. They provide a comprehensive and detailed understanding of the asset’s performance, behavior, and maintenance requirements, allowing operators to optimize its operation and predict potential issues before they occur.
Challenges faced by the railway ecosystem
The increasing number of passengers due to urbanization and population growth, growing liberalization and competition, changing customer preferences, and the pressing demand for sustainable mobility are some of the key drivers impacting railway operations. Digital twin technology can help address these challenges. Let’s take a look at three of them (these and more business cases can be found in the vision picture in this article):
- Increase traffic and expand infrastructure
Digital twin technology can help increase traffic and expand fleets and infrastructures by providing insights into the performance and behavior of existing assets. By predicting maintenance requirements and identifying areas for improvement, it can also help reduce downtime and improve operational efficiency. - Competitive edge
Furthermore, digital twin technology can help the railway ecosystem gain positioning over other means of transportation by providing a superior customer experience. By analyzing customer data and preferences, operators can develop personalized services and improve the overall travel experience. - Sustainability
Finally, digital twin technology can help the railway ecosystem go green by optimizing energy consumption and reducing environmental impact. By providing real-time data on energy consumption, operators can identify areas for improvement and implement energy-efficient practices.
With a strong contribution of the Netherlands team our company offers end-to-end capabilities to support complete digital twin projects in the railway industry. We have railway domain expertise in engineering, systems, products, software, infrastructure, and traffic management. Our unique capabilities in strategy and transformation, solution definition, development and deployment, and run services, combined with our continuous digital twin services maturation and introduction, make us the ideal partner to help the railway ecosystem leverage the power of digital twin technology to transform operations and meet the challenges of the future.
