The world is in a golden age of rail transport, with growth across all continents.
That’s the message Henri Poupart-Lafarge, Chief Executive Officer of Alstom, delivered to an auditorium full of delegates from the rail industry at the AusRAIL PLUS conference in Melbourne.
In his keynote speech, Poupart-Lafarge highlighted Australia’s opportunity within the “global rail revolution”.
He said: “Fundamentally, rail transport is about bringing communities together.
“It’s improving the quality of life in cities around the world, it’s improving the ways we connect with our work and our families, and it’s doing so in a sustainable way.
“This is why we’re seeing such growth in the market – it’s predicted to grow by three per cent per year.”
Poupart-Lafarge said he is pleased to see the increasing role rail transportation is playing in efforts to combat climate change, both in Australia and globally.
“I was at the COP [United Nations Climate Change Conference] in Paris in 2015, and there wasn’t a single word said about rail transport or even transport in general – it was all about energy production,” he shared.
“I was so pleased that for the first time, at the COP in Belém, Brazil this year, there was a full pavilion dedicated to transport.”
He said this was recognition of the fact that rail transportation is a solution, but it’s also a problem.
“If you look back over the past 10 years, the share of carbon dioxide emitted by mobility compared to total emissions has actually increased.
“This is to say that we have a fantastic future with so much growth, but we also have a huge responsibility to bring transport emissions down to the level we want to be at.”
The challenges facing rail
Poupart-Lafarge said it may come as a surprise that Australia’s rail network is much larger and more developed than Europe’s, but aside from this, there are some interesting similarities between the two.
“Both networks are extremely scattered, with the same challenges in terms of harmonisation and interoperability,” he explained.
“Historically in Europe, they didn’t want the network to be interoperable because of war – to make it harder for armies to travel between different countries.
“And of course, in Australia there are different gauges, different signalling systems. So in both Europe and Australia, our big challenge is to connect the different systems.”
Another challenge for both Australian and European rail networks is electrification.
“Europe’s network is more electrified than Australia’s, but 50 per cent of its network is still not electrified,” he said.
“So, we have a similar challenge in terms of green traction – what to do with all the diesel trains in Europe, which is 25 per cent of all passenger trains.”
There’s also ongoing work in both continents to build infrastructure to improve the quality of life for city residents and create better rail connections between cities.
“If you look at large cities in Europe, only 25 per cent of inhabitants have cars,” he said.
“The challenge is to get people out of their cars, but once they don’t have a car, they use public transportation more often, including for intercity travel.
“There has been a huge jump in very high-speed rail travel in Europe due to this phenomenon, as well as limitations on air traffic and the liberalisation of the high-speed market, with private operators getting involved.”
The growth of high-speed rail
Poupart-Lafarge said he is a passionate advocate for high-speed rail as a solution to global decarbonisation challenges.
“Today the very high-speed rail network is concentrated in a few countries – we talk about China, first and foremost, as well as France, Japan, Italy, and Spain.
“But it’s interesting to see how very high-speed rail is growing around the world.”
Alstom is proud to have played a key role in the first high-speed rail line in the United States, from Washington to Boston, with the delivery of its new generation of Acela trains.
The manufacturer has also delivered new double-decker Avelia Horizon trains as part of Morocco’s very high-speed expansion.
When it comes to building a high-speed rail network, Poupart-Lafarge observed that the “magic number” is about 700 kilometres.
“If you look at the densest traffic on these networks – for example, from Washington to Boston or from Marseille to Paris, it corresponds to about 700 kilometres or two or three hours of rail traffic.
“This distance, running between large population centres, seems to be an ideal situation for high-speed rail. This fits perfectly to the geography here in Australia.
“We all know that these infrastructure projects take a long time to be developed but we are very pleased to see that progress is being made, and Alstom is more than ready to participate and invest.”
Championing innovation
Poupart-Lafarge said Alstom’s number one way to contribute to decarbonisation is by limiting the energy consumption of its fleets, many of which are electric trains and trams.
“As a rule of thumb, whenever we produce a new generation of trains or trams – about every 10 to 15 years – we are decreasing energy consumption by 20 to 25 per cent,” he said.
“Our new generation of high-speed train has 20 per cent more seats than the previous generation, and it consumes 20 per cent less energy.
“It’s a 35 to 40 per cent decrease in energy per seat, which is a huge gain.”
He said that as Alstom continues its development of battery electric trains, it’s important to recognise that there are supply chain challenges and the technology is still evolving.
“We are heavily investing in research and design in this area, to integrate newly developed technologies from our suppliers,” he added.
When it comes to digital technology, Poupart-Lafarge said Alstom’s goal is to make rail networks more efficient, creating a seamless experience for passengers.
“To enable 24-hour rail operations, we have a new generation of automated, driverless metro trains.
“We’ve also started to experiment with driverless regional locomotives in Germany.
“So, we are moving in that direction, to improve the flexibility of operations as well as efficiency and sustainability.”
The wish list
To conclude, Poupart-Lafarge shared his wish list for the future of rail transportation. This includes predictable pipelines in manufacturing, engineering and development.
“Globally we have a pattern of project-based business with ups and downs, but I think predictable pipelines help everybody to move in the right direction,” he said.
He reiterated his hopes for more progress towards high-speed rail in Australia, and further steps towards standardisation across rail networks, as well as striking the right balance between localisation and a national/international approach.
Finally, he highlighted the responsibility that the rail industry has to embrace decarbonisation and work together to build more sustainable rail networks for the future.
