INTERVIEW
You have been with Bombardier for just over two years now, how have you found the experience so far?
Danny Di Perna is currently the President of Bombardier Transportation, and was appointed to this role in February 2019. He joined Bombardier in 2018 as the President of Aerostructures and Engineering Services. In this role, he was responsible for leading the transformation and growth strategy for this business unit. In a recent conversation with Sam Sherwood-Hale, Rail Professional, Di Perna talks about asset management in Southeast Asia and Bombardier’s approach to business in the region and get the latest on multiple ongoing projects in the region.
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When I grew up in engineering, aerospace was the exciting, high tech industry to be in – I completely underestimated rail. My father-in-law worked for the Canadian national railway and I always saw it as an old, stodgy world. But honestly, I underestimated the complexity, the requirements for safety and systems integration, cybersecurity and increased density for signalling, the whole project design is so impressive and it matters for everybody’s daily lives. I think the industry now is a lot more attractive to young professionals, the days of old steam engines are totally gone – it is all state of the art now. I have been on 20 trips to China over the years and spent a lot of time in Southeast Asia in both aerospace and now in rail. We function as a one-stop-shop with engineering, one of our centres of excellence is in Bangkok, where we have 640 signalling engineers. We have capabilities with rolling stock and design and production support, we use our JVs in China to produce, for example, the Singapore R151 metro vehicles. We also provide maintenance support. This topic of asset management comes up quite often in Southeast Asia, the perception is that operators and owners don’t take it as seriously as they should. Has that been your experience?
Urban Transport Infrastructure // JANUARY 2021
Using the UK as an example, I just went to Old Oak Common in the London area, it is a world class state of the art Crossrail-Bombardier depot. Asset management has been thought through for the next 30 years covering every aspect of maintaining the fleet. I went there with Andy Byford, TFL Commissioner, and Mark Wild, the CEO of Crossrail, and it is exactly as you say. It is one thing to get the rolling stock delivered but maintaining the value of the stock throughout its life requires full asset management in the form of operating the depots, supplying spare parts and overhauling the bogies – and we provide all of that. Governments used to buy it all and then figure it out as things were falling apart, we now have digital tools that can help us proactively maintain the assets and we strike deals that see us having a relationship that lasts 30 or 40 years. Governments can hold us accountable in this way. It is similar to the aerospace model for jet engines, you sell a jet engine to an airliner then they sign up to a long-term services arrangement for obsolescence management and fuel burn guarantees – so you’re locked down for the fleet life. September has been a busy month for Bombardier, we have covered multiple stories of new contracts for Bombardier in China, Australia, Singapore – all over Asia. You must be very pleased with how business is going in this part of the world? Bombardier Transportation remains a market leader in the Asia Pacific region. In Southeast Asia, we’ve been contributing to the region’s growth for the past 30 years by transforming its public transportation network. We have come a long way, from winning our first turnkey systems contract for a 27 kilometre rail network in Kuala Lumpur in 1992, to winning Bombardier’s biggest asset replacement contract in Asia on Singapore’s North-South & East-West Lines in 2018. We continue to partner with key regional suppliers to develop local rail capabilities and local rail talent for the long-term needs of regional customers. With our globally-proven range of product portfolios and experienced team, we are well equipped to provide the right solutions for the
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