The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, which is in charge of the railways in Finland, has announced that they have launched a new project focusing on collection real-time information about the state of railway points.

The project is a joint project between the FTIA and VR FleetCare.

Last year, problems with railway points, or switches, caused more than 5,000 train disruptions in Finland.

Railway points are used to direct trains from one track to another.

For the testing stage, VR FleetCare has installed seven measurement points found at major points on the Finnish railway network. They will test the operation of 80 points. Based on the data, switch failures can be detected from deviating performance.

It is hoped that this will prevent travel disruption due to failures.

What did the officials say?

Marko Lehtosaari, who is responsible for railway maintenance at FTIA, said:

“More detailed data helps us improve the availability of tracks and reduce switch-related disruptions to rail traffic. We aim to receive the first signals of maintenance needs before any deviations are detected in switch operations. In this respect, condition monitoring would help improve the punctuality of trains.”

“Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance of Swithes benefits the owner of the railway network, the maintenance providers and the traffic operators using the railway network. This pilot project is a good stepping stone because, in the future, we plan to offer this service also on the global railway market. We believe that our solution is the best and most competitive available.

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