how to reach efficient railroad operations through mobile technology

How to Reach Efficient Railroad

Operations through Mobile Technology

In regions across the globe, the public and private railroads acknowledge the need for a better transportation infrastructure. This is primarily due to the growth of world’s population that is rapidly approaching 8 billion people. The pressure on passenger rail systems is nowadays greater than ever before: each year, rail lines carry 21 billion passengers and 10 billion tons of freight worldwide [3]. This pushes rail systems developers to actively use cutting-edge information technologies to build smarter solutions. From 2015 to 2020, an estimated $300 billion will be spent globally on railway development and upgrades [1]. Mobile technology plays an emerging role in this area: 44% of transportation executives surveyed globally say mobile is their top strategic priority [2].

Areas of Mobile Adoption for Rail Transportation Commercial Operations Traveler Engagement Network OperationsMobile Solutions for Efficient Network OperationsBenefits and Value for Railroads Safe and Secure Transportation Reduced Costs and Prolonged Asset Life Improved Work Quality and Capacity Increased Rail Network Velocity ConclusionReferences

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CONTENTS

Professional Software Associates, Inc.

How to Reach Efficient Railroad Operations through Mobile Technology

The rail industry has long been considered a conservative sector, hardly responsive to modernizations and upgrades, but the growing demand for rail services made freight and passenger railroads seek assistance from modern technology – including wireless connections and mobile solutions. Whether private or public, passenger rail transportation providers plan to use mobile technologies to optimize rail performance, improve network and commercial operations, increase workforce safety, and achieve an engaging traveler experience. However, there are specific areas where mobility can deliver the greatest measurable and strategic value. These are the following three areas:

• Commercial operations• Traveler engagement• Network operations

3Professional Software Associates, Inc.

Areas of Mobile Adoption for Rail

Transportation



From a commercial perspective, mobile solutions can add value to passenger rail providers. Mobile commerce (mCommerce) solutions can be used to analyze network and service performance, traveler trends, financials, risk and other data in order to reduce service costs and improve sales. 36% of private transportation executives say that increased revenue is one of their top mobile initiatives [2]. Additionally, mobile services enable rail employees to identify, locate, and engage travelers anywhere at the station, from platform to the cabin. This can be used to personalize passenger service and build customer loyalty.

TravelerEngagement

NetworkOperations

CommercialOperations

Commercial Operations



With smartphone penetration on the rise, travelers’ reliance on mobile apps to simplify their journey is naturally increasing. 51% of transportation providers confirmed that their travelers currently purchase tickets, passes, and packaged trips with their mobile devices [2]. With this in mind, it is no surprise that more travel-related apps continue to appear. The most popular of them make it possible for rail passengers to easily and quickly plan their travel, book and purchase train tickets, board using m-ticket, check schedules and train status, receive schedule and destination updates, request and manage on-board services, and finally receive personalized offerings and recommendations. In other words, these apps free passengers from long lines and fuss, thus making the travel process a pleasure.

TravelerEngagement

NetworkOperations


TravelerEngagement



Successful rail providers make safe and on-time network operations the cornerstone of their mobile strategy. They are empowering their workforce with mobile solutions to keep the trains running and people moving smoothly. By using a mobile hand-held device, rail workers can operate locomotives and switches, maintain track and rolling stock, and conduct rounds or inspections [2]. It helps not only to stay on schedule, but also anticipate and avoid incidents, or respond to unavoidable incidents better and faster. This area of mobile adoption will be further considered in more detail in this white paper.

TravelerEngagement

NetworkOperations


NetworkOperations



• Personalize passengerservice• Personalize destinationservices• Analyze network andservice performance• Manage complaintsand incidents• Track passengers• Manage onboard stock• Enable access to fare,discount, and rate data• Build customer loyalty

• Plan trips and schedules• Purchase tickets andservices• Pass through gates andboard paperlessly• Request and manageon-board services• Track baggage, trains,and network status• Receive schedule anddestination warnings and updates• Plan and managealternate travel options• Receive personalizedofferings

• Operate locomotivesand switches• Maintain track androlling stock• Conduct rounds andinspections• Track equipment andworkforce• Maintain equipment• Respond toemergencies• Receive real-time alertsand notifications• View performanceanalytics

TravelerEngagement

NetworkOperations


Areas of Mobile Adoption for Rail

Transportation



Mobile Solutions for Efficient Network

Operations

Maintaining 20,000 miles of U.S. track safely and efficiently is a complex task. It involves equipping skilled workers with the appropriate tools and devices, as well as training them so they can work across thousands of sites throughout the national rail network, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year [5]. Needless to say, this is extremely difficult and costly. Therefore, many rail organizations rely on advanced mobile technologies to monitor the state of tracks and trains to achieve efficient network operations faster, cheaper and smarter.

Efficient network operations, above all, imply staying on schedule and ensuring safe and secure transportation. “Safety first” is the key principle for both passenger and freight railroads, working hard to create a safe environment for their clients and workers in order to save lives and prevent injuries on the job, at highway crossings, and on or near tracks. Statistics say that 33% of public and 26% of private transportation executives claim improved passenger safety is one of their strategic mobile initiatives [2].



Rail providers can mobilize hundreds of processes to manage day-to-day engineering and maintenance operations. There already exist mobile applications for railroad maintenance workers, which enable them to complete timely and efficient repairs. With the help of an application, called Close Call, railroad employees conduct inspection rounds and report hazards on the track as they are found so that problems can be addressed quickly. Rather than waiting hours to fill out a report at the depot, workers can take pictures of dangerous situations right away, describe situations and upload photos to the dispatching center. Using the hazard’s GPS coordinates, the center will usually schedule repairs within 24 hours.

Then, railroad maintenance teams need to start and close repair tasks. To do so, they use another mobile application, MyWork, which gives them all the information to easily open and close assignments. Moreover, the MyWork app clusters jobs by location, skills required, and opening and closing times. Using precise map coordinates, workers can find sites easily and finish jobs more quickly.

Mobile apps are also used in the rail sector for quick emergency response, an example is a recently introduced AskRail app developed by the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR). At the scene of a train derailment, it is crucial for emergency crews to know which commodities the train carries in order to more adequately assess the situation and deal with it. Nowadays, first responders use their smartphones to enter a car’s number into the app, check whether that car is empty or loaded, and if it’s loaded, whether the contents pose a safety hazard [6]. All important information becomes available in seconds, thus enabling emergency staff to react to situations faster and more effectively.



Another example of mobile applications usage for rail network operations is an existing software solution, used by railcar repair shops to manage billing and maintenance operations. This solution provides railcar owners with timely data, enhanced management information and decision-making tool to reduce repair and maintenance costs. The system consists of two parts: one responsible for car repair billing to audit repair lines against a predefined set of federal rules; and the other to help in railcar maintenance management that allows increasing data visibility and control to improve maintenance and repair decisions, as well as reduce associated costs.

The system is developed for Windows Mobile handheld devices that are built for quick and accurate repair data entry by shop personnel and enable work to be completed quickly and efficiently, both inside and outside of the shop. Mobile data automatically synchronizes with data center via wireless connection to ensure repair data is always up-to-date and accurate. The mobile handheld can come with a tag reader – an additional piece of hardware that is used to speed up data entry and eliminate errors by scanning AEI (automatic equipment identification) data tags.

Railroad inspectors like the ease and simplicity of using the handhelds: no more need to write on paper and transcribe later, plus they cut the inspection time significantly and leave less room for human error. Moreover, it allows tracking labor time and analyzing time spent versus time estimated to complete repairs, which serves as an instrument for enhanced workforce productivity. The system is currently used at approximately 200 repair facilities across North America which includes contract shops, regional and short-line railroads [7].



As mobile applications for the rail industry are gathering pace and becoming widely-used all over the world, the need for internationalization is as strong as ever. Our company, Professional Software Associates, has been involved in the internationalization and localization of the last-mentioned system. Maintenance management system and the car repair billing product were initially presented in the English language only and needed to be translated into other languages due to the expansion into new markets.

PSA performed the localization of both products to support multiple languages. In this regard, our development team paid special attention to numerous linguistic specifics and established the appropriate logic. Among those peculiarities were:

• Taking into consideration the sentence building structure of different languages toensure that the word order of the translated sentences is linguistically correct;• The changing length of the message after translation;• Internationalization of static fields, dynamic areas filled by the user, and parametricfields.

The internationalization activities were provided and tested with the use of a MOCK language, comprising all the logic necessary for further localization.


How can railroads benefit from the adoption of mobile technologies? Are investments worth the efforts? Many rail executives ask this questions, doubting whether their money will pay off. Considering the increased service demand and load on rail networks, it is high time to make the right decision towards putting money and efforts in creating real mobile innovation for the rail industry. It may be a little costly up front but will pay for itself quickly, ensuring considerable business value to rail operators. As mobile technology is infused into rail network processes, the industry will benefit in the following way:

• Safe and Secure Transportation• Reduced Maintenance Costs and ProlongedAsset Life• Improved Work Quality and Capacity• Increased Rail Network Velocity

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Benefits and Value for Railroads


The use of mobile technologies provides railroads with more intelligence, at the same time enhancing safety and security for travelers. Mobile condition-based monitoring systems allow continuous real-time capture and analysis of critical data, such as the health of a car (air pressure and brake monitoring, wheel bearing temperature, engine performance). With this data, railroad crews are able to respond more quickly and effectively to emergency repairs, thus reducing the number of accidents, collisions and derailments.

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Safe and Secure Transportation


As mentioned earlier, mobile applications enable railroad workers to streamline maintenance operations, reduce time and efforts spent on track maintenance. Through the application of mobile solutions rail companies could reduce maintenance backlog by up to 60% [8], which will produce large cost savings for them. By mobilizing asset management, they could reduce the total cost of rail asset ownership, increase asset availability and network capacity, prolong asset life, improve performance, and increase ROI (return on investment).

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Reduced Costs and Prolonged

Asset Life


Statistically, mobile solutions help to increase work capacity up to 10-20% [8]. This is achieved primarily due to optimization of crew schedules, distribution of tasks and responsibilities according to employees’ skills and experience, and easy-to-use performance reporting and analytics tools. All of those issues, in conjunction with human error minimization, are keys to improvement in work quality and productivity, which can be achieved by means of mobile technology.

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Improved Work Quality and Capacity


Improving rail network velocity, which entails increasing average speed of line haul movement between stations, is a growing priority for railroads of all stripes in relation to increased society demand for high-speed travel. The above-described handheld mobile devices used by railroad crews can improve maintenance with near real-time data capture of work progress, thus providing an opportunity to free up track sooner and increase rail network velocity.

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Increased Rail Network Velocity


There unfolds a new era, in which mobile-led innovation is making travel by rail faster, more convenient and affordable for passengers, and network operations more efficient and effective for rail operators. By embracing new and existing mobile technology to acquire, associate and analyze information across the rail network, it is possible to create a more responsive and agile operating environment for railroads around the world. The judicious application of the latest mobile solutions has a number of benefits for rail companies in multiple aspects: improved customer service, reduced maintenance costs, enhanced safety, and ameliorated operations.

Mobile technologies bring high value when used by railroad workers for maintenance and repair operations in particular. They free crews from the bulky paperwork needed for board meetings, cumbersome reference books, ambiguously located trouble spots that slow the repair process. Instead, they automate routine work, reduce a risk of human error, and allow collecting more accurate data and analyzing it in order to get improved rail network operations. As a result, we will get trains running smoothly and flexible rail operations that can expand rapidly to meet the growth requirements of the twenty-first century.

If your company is on the way of implementing mobile technology into the processes, we at Professional Software Associates can help you with it. Feel free to contact us right now.


Conclusion


[1] http://www.transport-tips.eu/uploads/Other_downloads/the_smarter_railroad.pdf [2] http://www.sap.com/bin/sapcom/en_us/downloadasset.2014-11-nov-02-17.how-mobile-is-trans forming-passenger-transportation-pdf.bypassReg.html[3] http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/rail_transportation/ideas/[4] https://www.aar.org/Documents/Railroad-Statistics.pdf[5] http://www.apple.com/business/network-rail/[6] http://www.progressiverailroading.com/safety/article/AARs-mobile-app-aims-to-bolster-firstresp onse-efforts-after-derailments--45262[7] http://www.getransportation.com/railconnect360/expressyard[8] http://global.sap.com/community/ebook/2014_11_34659/enUS/index.html#/[9] http://documents.mx/documents/railroad-industry-smart-railroad-opportunities.html


References

Contact us:

Professional Software Associates, Inc. 414 Lake Nepessing RoadLapeer, Michigan 48446 USA Telephone: + 1 727 724 0000E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.psa-software.com


About Professional Software Associates, Inc.

Professional Software Associates (PSA) is a leading software, hardware, and product engineering company that provides comprehensive development services. PSA specializes in developing innovative products and solutions for domestic and foreign customers, using quality process standards to ensure successful delivery of software, hardware, and turnkey products to our customers.