RMD in expert panel at major European rail conference

“Rail digitisation is more than vehicle positioning and maintenance windows. It is only when we fully share data that we will see the really big benefits”. This was the message from Jan Lindqvist, CEO of RMD, speaking at Rail Transport Day in Stockholm on 30 May 2023.

Jan Lindqvist, CEO of Railway Metrics and Dynamics, was invited to speak and be part of the expert panel at the Rail Transport Day in Stockholm. The event was jointly organised by the European Commission, RNE, Trafikverket, the European Rail Joint Undertaking and the Swedish Presidency of the European Union.

During the fourth session, moderated by Keir Fitch from the EU’s Directorate General for Transport and Mobility (DG MOVE), Railway Metrics and Dynamics (RMD) had the opportunity to present its views on perhaps the hottest topic in the railway world – digital railway systems.

“We discussed the role of digitalisation in making rail transport more reliable and flexible, and how we can reduce costs and increase capacity,” says Jan Lindqvist.

Three main areas were covered: the introduction of digital automatic coupling (DAC), the integration of asset management information, and the development of traffic management systems (TMS) and the tracking of trains, wagons and containers.

Systems of systems create unique ecosystems

“It is clear that our platform strategy is very timely as Europe begins to fully digitise its railways,” says Jan Lindqvist.

RMD’s platform is a unique ecosystem, best described as a system of systems. In simple terms, it is a collection of task-oriented and uniquely dedicated systems that together form a new, more complex system that offers even more functionality and performance than the sum of the individual systems.

“At the heart of our platform is the PMU sensor. It identifies movement patterns in real time and measures acceleration in three dimensions. All these movements are verified using unique algorithms. The more data that is collected – and the more PMUs that are installed around the world – the better the analysis and the more efficient the system becomes,” says Jan Lindqvist.

Getting digital right means getting more

It is with systems-within-systems that we can really speed up digitalisation. Because RMD works with open standards, the company can work with all the other systems in Europe.

“Sometimes other systems become part of ours and sometimes our platform becomes part of something bigger. The benefits of the systems are not just for the individual wagon owners, but for the whole system. This is true digitalisation,” says Jan Lindqvist.

The opening speech of the day was given by Kristian Schmidt, Director for Land Transport at GD Move. He was followed by a number of high-profile guests, including Andreas Carlsson, Sweden’s Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Roberto Maiorana, Director General of the Swedish Transport Administration, Paul Mazataud, President of RNE, and Giorgio Travaini, Executive Director of Europe’s Rail.

In addition to digital rail systems, Rail Transport featured three other major panel discussions. The first looked at how to make international cross-border and multimodal freight transport easier, the second focused on cross-border ticketing and the third discussed how the market can make the most efficient use of the rail network from origin to destination across Europe.