Capital Equipment News November 2023

RAILWAY TRANSPORT

The railway network, as seen from the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Driving digitalisation for future railway innovation

Huawei and the Southern African Railways Association (SARA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the purpose of creating a non-exclusive framework of cooperation for the transformation of the SADC region’s railway transport and corridor logistics to enable seamless, efficient, smooth, cost-effective and quality railway corridor services on all SARA Corridors.

T he signing took place during SARA’s annual exhibition and conference in a ceremony witnessed by Eng. Agostinho Francisco Langa Júnior, Presi dent of SARA and Guo Guoqing, President of Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa Enterprise Business and all SARA members. The MOU is designed to help address an urgent need in the railway space to make railways smarter, safer, more visualised, more efficient, and more reliable. As Guo Guoqing, President of Huawei Sub

Huawei will therefore assist in identifying and recommending minimum regional ICT railway standards, enhancing the train control technology and providing the various parties with access to a shared database, which will enable the reduction of inefficiencies and disruptions in the rail corridor supply chain. That includes moving away from the current GSM-R standard. With its narrow 4 MHz bandwidth, GSM-R capacity is not large enough to meet requirements to a better railway of SADC, and another unavoidable critical challenge is: GSM-R’s eco system is falling down quickly globally, it has no future: that is why SARA is seeking to officially replace it. “FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication) is pivotal for the genuine digital transformation of railways. To achieve a truly integrated regional railway system, it’s crucial for our region to standardise based FRMCS on a single technology,” SARA President Agostinho Francisco Langa Júnior said in his opening speech. With the standard reaching the end of its life cycle, Huawei is supporting the move

Saharan Africa Enterprise Business explained, “Success in the railway industry depends on safety, reliability, and affordability, with both operators and its customers expecting flawless service – but this requires future proofed communications networks based on single technology among all the rail operators.” Optimising communication Ensuring that optimal performance means delivering next-generation communication standards. As part of the agreement,

“Success in the railway industry depends on safety, reliability, and affordability, with both operators and its customers expecting flawless service – but this requires future-proofed communications networks based on single technology among all the rail operators.”

Guo Guoqing, President of Huawei Sub Saharan Africa Enterprise Business

TALKING POINT

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