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Fleet strategy in line with rollout ETCS L2

Customer: Furrer+Frey AG, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Evaluation of the remaining lifespan of current assets
  • Development of a short and long-term fleet strategy in line with the rollout of ETCS Level 2 on the Swiss network
  • Advisory on future modernisation and procurement investments

Our approach

Based on the latest version of the ERTMS national implementation plans relevant to the area of use existing and upcoming limitations for non-ETCS equipped vehicles were identified. A potential area of use for existing and tendered vehicles was evaluated, as well as related efforts and risks involved in a ETCS re-fitment. The ETCS strategy per fleet was defined by balancing opportunities versus limitations, both on technical and commercial aspects.

Customer benefit

The customer received a clearly defined strategy for short-term needs and long-term investments up to a time frame of 30 years. The strategy covers existing, as well as rolling stock replacements and new procurements.

Alternative forms of operation for the Appenzellers Rack railways

Customer: INFRAS, Switzerland

End customer: Canton of Appenzell A.Rh. and St. Gallen

Project tasks

  • Actual state analysis and screening of the available information including inspection of the three railway lines
  • Description of the state of the art in the market
  • Investigation of Automation possibilities
  • Development of a cost and benefit analysis
  • Creation of a final report including evaluation and recommendation for all three railway

Our Approach

As a first step a state analysis and screening of the available information including inspection of the three railway lines was carried out. Then a target system architecture was described using state of the art available technology. Various automation possibilities were developed and assessed. On top a cost and benefit analysis was carried out. All findings were collected in the final report including evaluation and recommendation for all three railways.

Customer benefit

Thanks to PROSE’s structured approach INFRAS received a well-founded result from a broad diversified analysis of the technical possibilities and economic effects of automation of the railway operation of the three lines. During the project the client received an overview of the possibilities as well as of the current state of the art on the subject of automated and autonomous driving operation. PROSE therefore develops a concrete recommendation and the magnitude of the necessary investments in the introduction of automated railway operations.

 

 

Advice on the implementation of ECM Regulation 779

Customer: SBB CARGO, ECM2 strategic fleet management, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Leadership coaching of the responsible head of strategic fleet management
  • Expert mentoring of the executing project employee
  • External workshop organisation for team development
  • Stakeholder management with management level, HRM, standards and regulatory bodies
  • Methodical tool development in the area of competence management
  • Strategic organisational development regarding structure and process organisation
  • Strategic knowledge management in quasi-governmental organisations

Our Approach

In a first step, the safety-relevant (ECM) activities were separated from the availability-relevant activities and documented in an external workshop. A competence matrix of the fleet management employees was created in several project work steps. PROSE then developed a target matrix on the basis of the content of the impending leap in standards from 2011/445 to 2019/779, whose delta on the actual situation can be used as the basis for strategic employee development and represents the comprehensive and detailed proof of competence in the forthcoming safety audits.

Customer benefit

The Head of Strategic Locomotive Fleet Management (ECM2) receives a comprehensive and detailed overview of the area of activity of his department and is in a position to document, reference and thus prove the ability to carry out these processes at any time and at the appropriate level in an audit-capable manner. Externally, this department achieves competence suited for the forthcoming re-certification to the new 2019/779 ordinance landscape. Internally, it serves as a practical example of the implementation capability within the framework of the CargoFit programme. Furthermore, process-related and competence oriented dependencies between the ECM2 activities will be established: safety, availability, system engineering and regulations are clearly documented and located.

Definition of a vehicle authorisation strategy for a driver advisor system

Customer: KNORR BREMSE, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Homologation strategy
  • Operational applicability
  • Human factor limitations

Our Approach

PROSE conducted an expertise on different topics. The aim of the PROSE homologation consulting was to prepare an argumentative concept on the legal situation relevant to homologation, as well as a description of the scope and content of the necessary notification to BAV (Bundesamt für Verkehr).

Customer benefit

KNORR BREMSE received a thorough expertise on the homologation imperative with regards to implementation of the driver advisor system in shunting and main line operation,  operational as well as human factors in and around the utilization a video camera system with artificial intelligence.

 

Advice on the modularisation of a functional vehicle authorisation strategy

Customer: Plasser&Theurer, Austria

Project tasks

  • Safety assessment report
  • Efficient decision-making basis for identifying significant changes
  • Optimisation in the definition of system boundaries
  • Optimisation potential in the creation of the “Requirement Capture”
  • Optimisation of the creation of the safety plan

Our Approach

PROSE offers support for a corresponding further development and optimisation of the processes. The aim was to optimise the processes and methodologies at P&T to the extent that effort is reduced and lead times can be shortened, but always in compliance with the requirements of the CSM EU VO 402/2013. The results of the workshop, including recommendations for the further procedure, were summarized by PROSE in a short report after the workshop.

Customer benefit

In a full-day workshop, Plasser&Theurer discussed in detail the necessity of a safety assessment report, efficient decision-making bases for the identification of significant changes, the design of optimisation in the definition of system boundaries, the optimisation potential in the preparation of the requirement capture and the optimisation of the preparation of the safety plan.

Support for the purchase of low-floor trams

Customer: Basel public transport authority (BVB), Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Capture customer wishes concerning vehicle technology
  • Support documentation of the resulting technical requirements
  • Consider the current state of technology
  • Take account of current technical rules and standards
  • Revise the draft specification
  • Conduct a technical evaluation of the submitted bids

Our Approach

PROSE employs experts with many years’ experience in rail passenger transport. This allowed PROSE to put the tender call in a correct and due form and to state the customer’s requirements so as to facilitate their practical implementation. PROSE also brought in current technical rules and standards and took current laws and regulations into account.

Customer benefit

The customer gained value because the PROSE experts, reduced the commitment of customer resources in the tender call’s development and because PROSE introduced knowledge of current technology and of corresponding systems and components in developing the concept for the tram. PROSE took into account the experience of other public transport agencies in recent rolling stock procurement projects and contributed to a neutral and impartial bid evaluation.

 

Development of a standardised EMU requirements specification for EN15380-5 transverse elements

Customer: Swiss Railway undertaking, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Summarise the current situation and clarify needs in one document
  • Concept development incl. review
  • Implementation in specification reviews (statement and walk-through / inspection)
  • Training and presentation of results

Our Approach

For the respective cross-sectional topics according to EN 15380-5, PROSE created one-pagers for the mutual understanding of the topics, which were reviewed together with the client’s technical experts.

Customer benefit

By creating the standard specifications, which define and describe the requirements regarding the cross-section elements, the customer has final procurement documents at train level. The customer was able to benefit from the comprehensive know-how of PROSE’s experts, who were able to comprehensively narrow down the complex topic of cross-section elements.

Setting the standards framework for maintenance

Customer: Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems, Switzerland and Rail Vision, Israel

Project tasks

  • Definition of requirements management
  • Creation of a standardisation framework
  • Delimitation of life cycle phase
  • Obsolescence management
  • RAMS & LCC Management

Our Approach

PROSE supports Knorr-Bremse and Rail Vision within their endeavor and defines the normative maintenance framework that builds the basis for a life cycle service contract upon installation of the electro-optic sensor systems.

Customer benefit

After prototype testing is successfully completed at the end of the first quarter of 2021, the partners will examine further business opportunities for integrating these systems into rail freight vehicles.

Feasibility study on driverless train operation (DTO)

Customer: BLT Transport AG, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Overall observation of the market
  • Detailed description of the planned infrastructure
  • Analysis of standards, technology and safety
  • Conclusion of asset of proposed measures of realisation – in coordination with FOT

Our Approach

During the first phase, a market overview was carried out together with a detailed description of the planned infrastructure – which ensured the achievement of the range required. The next step was creating the additional depth required by using standard technology and safety analyses. After consolidation, various variants were developed and evaluated during the feasibility phase. In coordination with the Federal Office of Transport (FOT), the best variant was selected and subsequently specified by proposed implementation measures

Customer benefit

Thanks to PROSE’s structured approach, BLT received a well-founded result based on a diversified analysis. During the realisation of the project, BLT already received an overview of the current state of the art autonomous transport systems and of present projects. In the end PROSE developed a coordinated proposal for a step by step introduction of autonomous operation, as well as further steps required for implementation, which were coordinated with the FOT.

smartrail 4.0 – Program Management COAT / CCS Vehicle Equipment

Customer: Industry program smartrail 4.0, SBB Infrastructure, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Management of the COAT / vehicle equipment sub-programme
  • Project planning, project controlling
  • Staffing and onboarding of internal and external project resources, together with PMO
  • SR40 Exchange with other programmes /projects / individual facilities
  • Weekly coordination with the organisational and technical smartrail 4.0 core teams
  • Quarterly coordination with smartrail 4.0 STASS vehicle
  • Coordination with the international cooperation OCORA
  • Coordination with stakeholders, including rail transport companies, suppliers / industry, national / international authorities BAV / ERA, and other stakeholders (CER, S2R, DG Move, RCA,…)

Our Approach

PROSE was commissioned by smartrail 4.0 with the program management and the PMO for the sub-program COAT / vehicle equipment. First the program was defined in terms of costs, benefits, content, and schedule and submitted for approval. Then the program management is responsible for the development of the program organisation and the establishment, planning and management of the international cooperation OCORA with the railway companies NS, SNCF, DB, ÖBB and SBB.

Customer benefit

With the commissioning of PROSE, the industry program smartrail 4.0 benefits from the wide-ranging experience of PROSE in the fields of On-board Signalling, ETCS and ATO in the procurement of new rolling stock as well as in the modernisation of existing vehicles.

 

Feasibility study for passenger coaches with standardised length and introduction of an automatic coupler system across the entire fleet

Customer: Rhaetian Railway, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Strategy support
  • Gauging analysis
  • Independent second opinion​

Our Approach

The space requirements of the various vehicles (main network cars, Bernina cars) on the corresponding routes were determined and compared by means of gauging analysis. In a second step, the general introduction of the automatic coupler was analyzed. For this purpose, PROSE carried out a product analysis of the common coupling systems and contacted different railway operators to contribute their experiences.

Customer benefit

The knowledge shown by PROSE regarding the length of the car body and the automatic coupler enables the Rhaetian Railway to proceed with its next procurement and to make the necessary decisions. PROSE was able to bring in its own independent view on the facts and thus to help the Rhaetian Railway to a well-founded decision-making.

Market innovation strategy consulting

Customer: CURTISS-WRIGHT DRIVE TECHNOLOGY, Switzerland

Project tasks

  • Strategy tool training for the management team
  • Strategy analysis workshop at the customer
  • Two market innovation workshops with strategic customers (integrators)
  • Two market intelligence workshops with strategic transport planners
  • Strategy Canvas Workshop with the client

Our Approach

In a joint workshop, CURTISS-WRIGHT DRIVE TECHNOLOGY and PROSE jointly assessed the marketability of the service portfolio based on the railway engineering references of CURTISS-WRIGHT DRIVE TECHNOLOGY on the one hand and the industry experience of PROSE on the other hand.

Customer benefit

The credibility and persuasiveness of the business case crystallized from the understanding of the motivational factors of the demand generators, and thus whether a demand for the product and service portfolio of CURTISS-WRIGHT DRIVE TECHNOLOGY can be generated at all among the integrators.

 

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