Bane NOR, the state-owned agency responsible for the Norwegian national railway infrastructure, has contracted Siemens to upgrade the signaling equipment of the entire Norwegian rail network to the European Train Control System (ETCS). Commissioning of the rollout lines is scheduled to be completed by 2034. The contract also includes services for 25 years and is worth around 800 million euros in total.
Shifting freight transport to rail has its limitations. Therefore, a share of this transport will need to be carried out by trucks that combine reliable service with minimum environmental impact. The eHighway system is twice as efficient as conventional internal combustion engines. This Siemens Mobility innovation supplies trucks with power from an overhead contact line. This reduces local air pollution and contributes significantly to the decarbonization of the transport sector.
Connected and self-driving vehicles are on the horizon. Autonomous taxis and minibuses could cover the last mile between homes and public mass transit and long-distance transport hubs, helping make private cars superfluous in cities and relieving congestion. In rail transport as well, fully automated systems and connectivity can help satisfy the rapidly growing demand for mobility. Making vehicles and infrastructure more intelligent can ensure better availability and make mobility safer. All this adds up to vastly improved urban environments.
Siemens is working with municipalities, public transit authorities and research institutes to develop these transport concepts.
The breath-taking rise of Bangkok to become a leading business center in Asia created a basic challenge for the city to ensure the mobility of millions of people. Before 1999, people used to take a bus, motorcycle or taxi for almost 80 per cent of their daily travel needs. This created congestion in large parts of Bangkok's infrastructure, making traffic jams a daily occurrence. The travel speed in downtown Bangkok was usually less than ten kilometers per hour. This not only affected the mobility of the commuters but had also an impact on the quality of life. Without a working rapid transit and mainline traffic concept, Thailand's capital was bound to grind to a standstill.
Siemens Mobility's Vectron locomotives are used for both freight and passenger service. During the development of the locomotive, the focus was on providing a future-proof design, investment security, environmental compatibility, fungibility, retrofitting capability and convertibility. The Vectron can be delivered as a purely electrical version for operating with alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) power systems as well as a multisystem (MS) variant in the power classes 5.2 MW, 5.6 MW and 6.4 MW. Along with the desired national train control system, the locomotives can also be equipped with the latest European Train Control System (ETCS). The locomotives are built in the Siemens Mobility plant in Munich-Allach, Germany. The first Vectron was delivered in 2012. Siemens Mobility has sold over 800 Vectrons to date to a total of 42 customers. The Vectron fleet has accumulated more than 175 million kilometers of service so far. The locomotives are currently certified for operation in 18 countries. For freight transport in Germany, Siemens Mobility also offers the Smartron standard locomotive and the Vectron Dual Mode, a combination of diesel and electric locomotive.
With growing populations, cities are becoming increasingly congested, with more traffic and longer commutes. Efficiency and safety of road traffic remain top priority for many cities. By offering autonomous shuttle systems, public transport operators and cities seek to draw passengers and make public transport more attractive. At the ITS World Congress in Singapore, Siemens Mobility is examining how Singapore is transforming its transportation ecosystem, delivering an outlook on intelligent traffic systems (ITS) projects within the Asia-Pacific region as well as showcasing advances in autonomous mobility coming to life at the CETRAN test facility.
Let the good times roll: Starting September 21, about six million people from all around the world will be enjoying themselves at the Oktoberfest in Munich for two weeks. Traditionally, Siemens supplies drives and control systems as well as energy distribution for the festival's rides. Automation solutions from Siemens also control special beer pipelines – the only ones of its kind worldwide –that supply the Hacker, Winzerer Faehndl and Braeurosl festival tents with their tasty Oktoberfest brews. Because many breweries use Siemens technologies within their brewing process, Siemens doesn't only ensure fresh beer at the Oktoberfest.
Smartphone users as well as industrial companies are looking forward to the advent of the new 5G wireless mobile standard, thanks to which companies will be able to connect their machines and thus make their production plants and intralogistics operations more efficient, more autonomous, and more flexible than ever before.
Industrie 4.0, the smart factory, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – these are the future of industrial manufacturing. Designing production plants and intralogistics to be more flexible, autonomous, and efficient requires the right communication framework and comprehensive connectivity. The new 5G communication standard opens up important new prospects. It will initially have a data speed of between one and 5 gigabits per second, subsequently increasing to 20 gigabits per second – a quantum leap that will make it between 10 and 20 times faster than the system’s predecessor, LTE.
The VAG Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nuremberg has ordered 27 type G1 four-car metro trains from Siemens Mobility. The contract also includes an option for a total of a further 7 trains. These trains are earmarked for service on Nuremberg's U1 line. The trains will be built in the Siemens Mobility plant in Vienna. Core components of the G1 will be manufactured in the Nuremberg metropolitan area and include such products as the drive converters, traction motors, auxiliary converter units and control equipment. The project management, development and service support will be provided from Erlangen.
Control rooms of process engineering plants are usually
as old as the plant itself, often 30 years and more. Today, digital
transformation is placing new demands on automation: Simatic PCS neo is a brand-new system software, which
offers companies in the process industry unique opportunities in the age of
digitalization. Main features include global web-based collaboration in
engineering and operation and intuitive handling representing all relevant
information in a single workbench.