A fleet of Sydney’s Waratah trains have been fitted with intelligent software created by Downer EDI and Microsoft Azure teams to keep track of vehicle maintenance and other data-based decisions. The NSW government ordered 24 Waratah Series 2 trains under its Sydney Growth Trains Project in 2016 – an additional 17 trains was added earlier this year and another 24 will be delivered this month. The trains are maintained by Downer EDI – which holds a 30-year contract with the state government to manage and maintain the existing fleet of 78 trains. Recently, Downer equipped the Waratah fleet of trains with over 300 sensors and about 90 cameras, backed by software that consumes sensor data from the fleet of trains. This allows predictive maintenance and data-driven decisions, said Mike Ayling, general manager of digital technology and innovation at Downer. According to Ayling, its engineers will be able to analyse trends across very granular data such as temperature of the train, outliers in voltages and currents and opening and closing times of doors. This means any small changes in the data can deliver Downer an early alert about what’s going on and what might need attention. Machine learning and intelligent data analysis could also allow engineers schedule preventive maintenance before a failure takes place; and help in the need for replacement parts, to be ordered ahead of schedule, from overseas suppliers. Downer’s rollingstock services business is one of the first adopters of the Azure based solution, used as the backend for their TrainDNA product. Tim Young, executive general manager – Rollingstock Services, Transport and Infrastructure, Downer likened the solution to, “data analytics platform on steroids.” “With such massive volumes of data it will allow us to establish trends in relative real time, allow us to predict failures in advance and calculate the remaining life of an asset more effectively,” he said. “The advantage to our customers is that all of this takes place whilst the train is in service without interrupting the operation and at the same time enhances worker safety through the potential of removing high risk inspections.” The front end of the solution is an Angular Web App built on top of ASP.netcore services, with the solution hosted through Azure’s Service Fabric ensuring scale and resilience. The Azure IoT Hub feeds stream analytics into an Azure Data Lake Store and Azure SQL database and access is managed by Azure Active Directory with Power BI providing analytics and reporting. According to Ayling “automation and digitisation” moves the company away from being an “inspector and maintainer”, to an asset maintainer. Related content how-to How to create an effective business continuity plan A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an By Mary K. Pratt, Ed Tittel, Kim Lindros Dec 07, 2023 11 mins Small and Medium Business Small and Medium Business Small and Medium Business interview WestRock CIDO Amir Kazmi on building resiliency Multidimensional resiliency is vital to setting yourself, your teams, and your organization up for success. Kazmi sets the tone at WestRock by recognizing the pace of change, instilling a learning and growth mindset, and being transparent with his te By Dan Roberts Dec 07, 2023 8 mins IT Strategy Staff Management IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by FPT Software Time for New Partnership Paradigms to Be Future-fit By Veronica Lew Dec 06, 2023 5 mins Vendors and Providers brandpost Sponsored by BMC Why CIOs should prioritize AIOps in 2024 AIOps empowers IT to manage services by incorporating AI/ML into operations. By Jeff Miller Dec 06, 2023 3 mins IT Leadership Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe