Alstom moves with the times

Rolling Stock and Manufacturing

Moving with the times

As travel patterns change due to COVID, urban transport systems based on rail are expected to play a major part in easing congestion and meeting environmental targets.

Leading the way to greener and smarter mobility worldwide, Alstom develops and markets integrated systems that provide the sustainable foundations for the future of transportation.

And much of the way it does this is by resolving the “data challenge” faced by operators, maintainers and transport passengers, using artificial intelligence and visualisation tools.

According to Alstom commercial director Todd Garvey, predicting future passenger flows to ease congestion and ensure a healthy fluidity continue to pose a significant issue, particularly during a pandemic which has irrevocably changed the way people commute.

“It’s a challenge for authorities and transport operators in urban metropolises around the world, as is meeting the environmental targets necessary to protect a fragile planet,” he said.

“The solution to these challenges can be found in a mobility approach that positions rail as the backbone of urban transport systems, interconnected with a diverse range of first- and last-mile solutions.

“For this type of multimodal system to be truly effective, operators must work together to both orchestrate and optimise their services through a transparent system of data sharing.”

RAIL AS THE LYNCHPIN

Garvey said rail alone cannot solve every urban transport problem, and that it was increasingly important to understand how other forms of transport link into the local ecosystem.

“While rail may be the beating heart of collective mobility, it must be connected with first- and last-mile solutions, enabling seamless transfers for door-to-door travel,” he said.

“For this to happen, operators need the right tools to both anticipate and adapt to demand.

“Orchestrating mobility means integrating traditional forms of collective transport, such as trains, metros and tramways, with new means of transport, such as bike and taxi shares.”

Garvey said that as citizens move away from private vehicles to more sustainable forms of travel, Alstom is shifting its focus to a global mobility offer, at the centre of which is rail, the greenest and safest mode of transport.

By opting to take collective transport instead of using a personal vehicle, passengers reduce road congestion while actively lowering their carbon footprint.

Alstom recently signed a $470m contract with Victoria’s Department of Transport to locally supply 25 six-car X’trapolis trains for Melbourne’s suburban rail network.

ORCHESTRATING MULTIMODAL MOBILITY

Passengers need multimodal mobility services that are consistent and reliable, especially in terms of the time taken to get from one point to another every day.

If the length of a commute varies by a large margin each day and is unpredictable, passengers may be reluctant to take collective transport.

“One key to reliable transportation is dependable and affordable first- and last-mile transport options, such as scooter and bike shares,” Garvey said. “Another is easy access to accurate information on all the transport options in a passenger’s city.

“Currently, operators may provide multimodal information on mobile applications, but it is usually partial, pieced together by third parties from publicly available information, and is not always relevant.

“For multimodal mobility to work effectively, commuters need easy access to reliable information on all the transport options in their city. This requires local operators to work together to consolidate and share data.”

In other words, to enable truly seamless transport, operators, telecommunications companies and local authorities must consolidate and share data effectively.

Without this cooperation, no single operator can provide passengers with the level of reliability they need to use public transport day to day. A whole range of information, from ticketing, track and train sensors to weather reports, news, social media and CCTV can all power the data-driven analysis that will allow passengers to see the full range of transport options and capacity in real time.

OPTIMISING COLLECTIVE TRANSPORT

Quality data can help manage the flow of passengers into a system, but only if the system is flexible enough for operators to adjust their services to both demand and external factors.

“Accurate, consolidated information is just one part of the battle of ensuring seamless journeys on collective transport,” Garvey said.

“For data to be considered reliable by the passenger, it must also be optimised, enabling transport supply to be adjusted to meet demand.

“For example, data from bike share operators can help a metro operator predict how many extra passengers may use its service on a rainy day rather than cycle to work (and viceversa). However, if the operator is unable to accommodate a surge in passengers in real time by running more trains, and passengers need to wait to get on trains that are more

crowded than usual, the two transport systems are orchestrated but not optimised.”

Garvey said seamless mobility involves two key elements.

The first is reliable information about the available transport options, based on shared information from all operators. The second is a technologically advanced system of data analysis and artificial intelligence that adjusts supply to meet demand.

PREDICTING FUTURE MOBILITY

In addition to enabling operators to adapt to real-time changes in their networks, data can help simulate and predict future passenger flows. This kind of data analysis has become especially important since the pandemic has changed travel patterns around the globe.

“Many people are now working from home, while others have changed their work schedules to avoid rush hour travel,” Garvey said. “By compiling data from technology such as signalling systems, flow management systems and centralised operational control centres, operators are able to see the impact of certain events – from the pandemic to daily influences such as weather, sports matches and traffic – on passenger flows.

“Advanced AI solutions are then able to suggest solutions to operators for reducing congestion and redistributing resources during these events. By predicting influxes and adapting to them before they take place, operators are able to ensure a seamless journey for passengers.”

DATA’S A BIG DEAL

Alstom is making a big investment in data science, hoping to double the number of data scientists at the company in the next three to five years.

It offers an international community that recognises the importance of data science and the opportunity to work on sustainable mobility solutions that have a real impact on people’s lives.

The company welcomes candidates from different back-grounds, from physics to electronics engineering to power supply engineering, with skills in software engineering, analytics, machine learning, and statistics, to name a few. Above all, Alstom is looking for an entrepreneurial spirit in applying all those skill sets to solving problems.

Alstom employees make a difference in people’s daily lives and can see a connection between what they’re working on and how their city is improved. Real-time data for 69 fleets – about 1060 trains internationally – is collected every three seconds, a total of more than 20 terabytes of data.

Working closely with engineering and field teams, data scientists use this information to provide safe and reliable products through predictive maintenance, to ensure energy efficiency by matching demand with capacity, and to improve the passenger experience.

Alstom’s vision of the green mobility era is to reduce road congestion, reduce the carbon footprint of collective transport and increase the fluidity of travel across cities.