KiwiRail has signed a $3 million dollar contract for IBM to provide software and services that will help improve the speed, safety, and reliability of its rail service. “Advanced business analytics will provide proactive, accurate analysis and reporting of network assets in real-time to help us manage our resources efficiently,” says Rick van Barneveld, general manager, KiwiRail Network.
KiwiRail is deploying Maximo, IBM’s enterprise asset management solution, to deliver information on the condition of the 4000 kilometres of railway track, bridges and thousands of pieces of rail equipment as well as the signals that control the movement of trains across the country.
This means KiwiRail maintenance crews will have access to up-to-date information of their assets, job plans, work-order tracking, and service requests across the lines.
IBM says its technology is used to implement similar smarter rail systems around the world. One of them is Netherlands Railways, which uses advanced optimisation software to weigh more than 50,000 variables, including the railroad’s infrastructure and passenger demand, to assemble and schedule more than 5,000 trains per day, improving operating efficiency by 6 percent with an estimated annual savings of 20 million euros.
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