Due to the increasing airport and road congestion, rail is the main feasible alternative to address infrastructure saturation within mature and emerging countries. Rail is a safer, cleaner option that offers a credible and competitive alternative to road and air transport. Numerous challenges remain, but geographical, financial, and environmental factors currently work to the benefit of rail transport. Advances in technology are also proving beneficial for current rate of growth for smart railways market.
Old railway infrastructure limits the efficiency of resources and compromise reliability in established rail markets. New markets have the opportunity to adopt newer, more flexible technology infrastructures, leapfrogging over current practices. Market research for smart railways market suggests that many current Information Technology (IT) systems are complex, making the sharing of data difficult. They are also unable to cope with the scale of growth predicted over the next few years. Frequent network failures and systems outages can have a domino effect, significantly impacting customer satisfaction.
The increasing demand for rail services is straining existing systems, requiring optimization of the existing passenger and freight schedules to achieve increased throughput on existing rail infrastructure. Rail freight companies are said to be experiencing growth in trade, especially in the areas of energy and commodities. Rail companies are increasing asset utilization and making significant investments in infrastructure to meet the capacity challenge. Rail management companies must strive hard to meet the ever increasing demand for rail systems that are integrated into the global economy, competitive with other transportation systems and flexible enough to meet global trade and passenger demands.
The smart railways market analysis report brings out the railway solutions business potential across different regions such as North America (NA), Asia Pacific including Japan (APAC), Europe (EU), Latin America (LA), and Middle East and Africa (MEA). It further segments each regional market by solutions types and industry verticals, and forecasts the revenue for the various submarkets. The report provides a comprehensive examination of market drivers for railways as a smart transportation infrastructure investment, including an assessment of the various approaches being taken in key countries around the globe.
Case Studies
Shift²Rail: The major focus of Shift²Rail project is to develop smart railways market with rail as a transport mode by promoting step-change innovations for passenger rolling stock, freight transport, traffic management systems, and rail infrastructure. It will also contribute to the paradigm for modal shift to attract the users to rail. For the EU passengers, this will mean more travel options, more comfort, and improved punctuality. For the freight forwarder/shippers, this will mean that rail freight will become more cost effective, punctual, and traceable as a shipment option.
Next-Generation of Train Control Systems (NGTC): The project focuses on developing and installing next-generation train control system solutions in the domain of urban and main line European railway systems, with the aim of satisfying the increasing market needs of both mainline and urban lines. The project aims on developing new rail control system which includes adoption of satellite positioning and Internet Protocol (IP)-based radio communication in centralized traffic control solutions systems.
European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS): ERTMS is a major industrial project being implemented to enhance cross-border interoperability through Europe by creating a single standard for railway signaling. ERTMS is a continuous communication-based signaling system. The project is
