This article first appeared in the Railway-News Magazine Issue 3 2023.
Railway infrastructure monitoring is cumbersome, disruptive and expensive. Or is it?
Enabled by ASC sensor technology, Turkish State Railways (TCDD), Siemens Mobility and DB Systemtechnik GmbH decided to take an innovative approach: continuous infrastructure monitoring (CIM).
Rail infrastructure monitoring needs to occur regularly, typically using special machinery that disrupts regular train services. The aim is to ensure that any signs of fatigue or other parameters running out of spec are detected early, so that critical maintenance can take place in time and avoid costly breakdowns and service disruptions.
TCDD wishes to minimise these service disruptions yet increase capacity and ride comfort on two newly built high-speed rail links from Ankara to the cities of Konya and Eskisehir, and another from the capital to Istanbul. Therefore, the national Turkish operator has been collaborating with Siemens Mobility Türkiye and German rail infrastructure specialist DB Systemtechnik to implement constant monitoring of rail tracks and other infrastructure from high-speed passenger trains while in active service.
To that end, a Siemens Velaro train has been equipped with the latest innovative technologies to conduct all necessary measuring activities in real time. Future risks will be proactively identified, too, by integrating historic data and calculating the appropriate time for preventive maintenance, repair or replacement to take place. The approach is based on years of CIM experience gathered on the German railway network.
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