Australia, already one of the most urbanised countries in the developed world, must find a way to deal with ongoing population growth while transport networks are already pushing capacity. Thales Australia’s Sam Keayes spoke with Rail Express about the crucial role railway digitalisation will play.
Sam Keayes is Thales Australia’s VP for Ground Transportation Systems and Secure Communications & Information Systems. Keayes, who hails from the UK, says Australia may just be the global hotspot for railway digitalisation over the next decade.
“A lot of our customers have big ambitions, but I don’t think there are many customers globally that have as big ambitions as the various state and federal governments within Australia, in terms of improving the way people and freight are moved around on rail,” Keayes told Rail Express in August.
“There’s a huge population growth forecast in Australia, concentrated in an incredibly urbanised environment. We’re simply not going to be able to deal with that growth in passenger and freight volumes using the current technology.
“We’re going to need to push more rollingstock down the existing infrastructure; we’re also going to need to build more infrastructure; and we’re going to need to get the elements of transportation working more effectively together.”
New technology also allows the transportation network to be more reliable, and for maintenance to be more efficient.
“The huge amount of data we’re getting off every centre and every device that we’ve got on the rail network now provides huge opportunities for predictive maintenance, asset management, and giving passengers more information to plan and bridge their journeys.
“That technology, I think, can make almost as big a difference as building new infrastructure, and adding more capacity to existing infrastructure.”
Thales poised to take part
Thales’ Ground Transportation division employs 8,200 around the world, out of a total Thales workforce of around 65,000.
Its systems operate in more than 40 major cities, like London, Paris, Dubai and Hong Kong, and help move 3 billion passengers every year. The company has worked for major clients like the London Underground, which is using Thales’ SelTrac CBTC to modernise its signalling infrastructure.
“Essentially Thales is the partner of our customers to provide them with innovative, high tech solutions,” Keayes explains.
“Whether they’re trying to connect people to their jobs, or create a ‘thirty minutes to anywhere’ city, or to provide a safer, more secure transportation solution, they rely on us to provide the innovation and the right technology solutions to be able to achieve their objectives.”
Thales splits its railway digitalisation capabilities across three main offerings: rail signalling, passenger safety, and passenger services.
Thales employs 3,600 people in Australia working across several industries and a multitude of disciplines. At any one time a team of up to 100 are working on ground transportation systems out of the company’s Rydalmere office, west of Sydney.
“Incidentally,” Keayes notes, “we are desperate to get the Parramatta Light Rail and Sydney Metro West projects up and running as quickly as we can to service our own facility at Rydalmere.”
Thales counts Sydney Trains as a key ongoing customer, but has also delivered projects like Auckland’s contactless ticketing system, the AT HOP card.
Keayes isn’t shy about Thales’ ambitions to do more work in the region.
“In Australia we’ve had a long history of selling train protection products like axle counters, like track protection warning systems for customers like Metro Trains Melbourne, Queensland Rail, Aurizon, Rio Tinto and others around the country.
“Our aspiration is to expand that business, to build the full suite of signalling and rail traffic management systems into Australia, to ensure trains can run smoothly and safely throughout the rail network.”
Sydney Metro work a demonstration of value
Thales is working on Sydney Metro Northwest, where it is delivering the project’s Central Control System and Communication System, as a key supplier to the Northwest Rapid Transit consortium.
Keayes says the Northwest work is a prime example of Thales’ local capabilities integrating both software and hardware.
“In Sydney Metro Northwest,” he says, “all of the CCTV cameras, help points, access control, intrusion detection, telephony, passenger information systems and PA systems are integrated together with the control system software.”
Northwest is also a demonstration of Thales’ local and global experience working on both greenfield and brownfield projects: a significant portion of the Sydney Metro Northwest route is newly constructed railway, but the project also involves converting the existing rail line between Epping and Chatswood to a new Metro standard.
“When you’re building a greenfield system, you have the space, the ability to work throughout the day, and the ability to test systems in the lab before putting it out into the field,” Keayes explains.
“Operating on brownfield sites, you need to understand what’s there first. That’s very often the most challenging part of the project; getting a handle on the legacy systems that are there, their configuration state, what documentation and engineering underpins it.
“Only then can you understand what you need to replace, what you need to interface with, and then develop those interfaces if they’re required, so that the commissioning goes smoothly.”
R&D giving a competitive edge
Thales invests close to a billion Euro into research and development annually, and a huge amount of that work applies to its ground transportation capabilities. The company’s global reach allows it to conduct and apply this research in many markets.
As an added layer of value, Thales does a significant amount of work in cybersecurity, and this capability enhances the company’s ground transportation offering.
“Our R&D investment allows us to develop new digital solutions, new software platforms, and new signalling systems,” Keayes states, “and it allows us to maintain these systems for our customers.”
Thales’ Advanced Railway Management and Information System (ARAMIS) is one example of a product benefitting from ongoing R&D. In place in 16 countries, ARAMIS controls around 52,000 trains each day.
“That is not a simple product development,” Keayes says. “It requires continual investment to take advantage of new digital technologies, upgrades of old systems, and the like, with a future technology roadmap.
“In our DNA we are a technology company. We invest in R&D for our own technology, and to better understand the technology that’s around to interface with. We really put the time and effort into understanding how different systems will behave under different networks and operating conditions, so that our customers can make the right technology choices.”
Culture key to Australian success
Keayes says Thales’ commitment to growing its local capabilities, combined with a strong customer focus, should help it grow in the Australian market.
“One of the reasons I’m so confident in our ability to bring more of Thales’ global portfolio into Australia, is because over the last few years we’ve had a very good track record of delivery, and we’ve got a culture to do whatever it takes to deliver for our customers,” he says.
“Delivery, delivery and delivery are our top three priorities.”