InnoTrans Update – Tuesday, 23 September 2014

Main themes at InnoTrans 2014

Transport Minister Dobrindt: “Mobility 4.0 to safeguard prosperity”

According to the Federal Minister for Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Alexander Dobrindt, a combination of three things, investments, modernisation and digitalisation, is needed in order to give life to the InnoTrans slogan “The Future of Mobility”. “Mobility 4.0 is synonymous with safeguarding prosperity, it will demand much from us if this is to become a reality”, the minister said at the opening event of InnoTrans. Global development is inconceivable without strengthening the railway system, a system whose outstanding attributes include its carrying capacity, its environmental compatibility, its speed and its safety. “Prosperity, growth and jobs are all closely linked with mobility”, the minister added.

EU Commissioner Kallas: “Private investment provides Europe with increased profits and improved competitiveness.”

In 2014 Siim Kallas, EU Commissioner for Transport and Vice President of the European Commission, is attending his third InnoTrans opening ceremonies. In 2010 he expressed his own personal ambition of seeing the creation of a uniform European rail transport market, one that should no longer be dominated by national political structures. Following “tough negotiations and many proposed changes”, the EU approved its largest infrastructural project, the “Connecting Europe Facility”, in 2013, which will make a total of 26 billion euros available between 2014 and 2020. “This is a new approach intended to link East and West, and in so doing, to develop not individual projects but a fully functioning trans-European network”, Kallas explained. The resulting improved efficiency on the rails also has an impact on other forms of transport. One question is bound to arise: to what extent does transport policy take precedence when compared with other major tasks such as digitalisation and the safeguarding of energy supplies? However, solutions, based on market mechanisms, are certain to be found. Siim Kallas: “Private investment provides Europe with increased profits and improved competitiveness.”

Predicted growth of 2.7 per cent by the worldwide rail market

Growth by the worldwide market for rail vehicles and the associated infrastructure has been steady, as revealed by the World Rail Market Study, which was presented at InnoTrans by the Director General of UNIFE, Philippe Citroën. Currently the association is registering annual growth rate of 4.3 per cent, revealing an actual expansion of 1.5 percentage points above the previously forecast level. For the period from 2017 to 2019 statisticians predict annual growth of 2.7 per cent. The study expects the highest rates of expansion to be in the Asia-Pacific region, with four per cent, and in North America, with 3.5 per cent. For Latin America the association foresees a six per cent increase, but points out that this is the region with the greatest pent-up demand. In view of increasing urbanisation, Citroën stated that the pressure to conserve energy, together with continuing deregulation and liberalisation, should ensure that the rates remain stable for the foreseeable future. Location: Hall 4, Stand 302, contact: Leonardo Dongiovanno, telephone: +32 2 642 23 29

VDB Chief Executive Pörner deplores infrastructural deficits

Last year the German rail industry received record orders totalling 14.9 billion euros. In addition to strong demand on the domestic market, exports now account for 51 per cent of the total, reported the Chief Executive of the German Railway Industry Association (VDB) e.V., Prof. Dr. Ronald Pörner, speaking at the opening press conference of InnoTrans 2014. For the current year too he expects developments to remain positive, but without reaching the level of orders achieved in 2013. The leading partners for German exporters are northern Europe, Turkey, China, the USA and Russia, and, in the case of the latter, current political developments are being studied with “great concern”. “Russia is an incredibly important market for our companies”, Pörner emphasised. He was severely critical of the slow pace of infrastructural modernisation in Germany. For too many years there has been an annual shortfall of 1.2 billion euros in the spending on replacing track, overhead power lines and signalling equipment. There are some 3,400 signal boxes and on average just under one third of them were built 80 years ago. Consequently the association is calling for an increase in the funding for the renewal of signal boxes and signalling systems to at least 600 million euros annually from 2015 onwards. Location: Hall 2.2, Stand 202, contact: Sascha Nicolai, telephone: +49 (0) 177 -3147273, email: [email protected]

More ICE and TGV services between Germany and France

Starting in early 2016 Deutsche Bahn and France’s SNCF plan to offer more cross-border, high speed connections with their TGV and ICE services. This was stated in the extension of the bilateral cooperation agreement signed by the chief executives of the two railway systems, Rüdiger Grube and Guillaume Pepy, on Tuesday at the start of InnoTrans 2014, in the presence of the two countries’ transport ministers, Alexander Dobrindt and Alain Vidalies. Dobrindt describes this cooperation, which was first set up in 2007 and has been extended until 2020, as “living Europe”. So far the trains have carried ten million passengers and, as Grube pointed out, they were used by 200,000 people in August 2014 alone. The number of daily services linking Frankfurt and Paris will be increased from four to six, and between Stuttgart and the French capital there will be five, instead of the present four. Journey times between Paris and Stuttgart are also being reduced by half an hour to three hours and ten minutes. Grube promised that the improvements will take effect in good time for the European football championships in France, enabling fans to travel to the games quickly and in comfort. Vidalies welcomed this development, and also expressed the hope that the Germans would not be taking the cup home with them. Location: CityCube, Hall B, Stand 413, contact: Jürgen Kornmann, telephone: +49 (0)30-2976532000 email: [email protected]

Product and Industry Highlights

ABB Railway: Reducing total energy consumption

ENVILINE™ ESS (750V Hybrid) from ABB is making its world debut at InnoTrans. This energy storage system enables the surplus energy produced when a vehicle’s brakes are applied to be stored, and the accumulated energy is then transferred when needed to a DC traction unit, for example, when a vehicle is starting up. If required the ESS can be equipped with super-capacitors, so that energy can be briefly stored for applications requiring a high power density or the use of batteries, in order to achieve a higher energy density. ENVILINE™ ERS is a system that recovers the energy produced when a vehicle brakes. It consists of an inverter based on IGBT modules, which feed the vehicle’s surplus energy back to the AC network, thereby reducing total energy consumption. Location: Hall 9, Stand 204, contact: Cécile Félon, telephone: +41 (0) 58 -5862236, email: [email protected]

Herrenknecht is using eight tunnel boring machines on the London Crossrail project

Herrenknecht is a market leader in tunnelling machinery, a field in which it employs pioneering technology. Herrenknecht is the only company in the world able to supply the latest tunnelling equipment for every kind of substrate and in all diameters, from ten centimetres to 19 metres. Its product range also encompasses custom-made machinery for supply and waste disposal tunnels. At the present time the company, which is based in Schwanau, is deploying no fewer than eight tunnelling machines on London’s Crossrail project, which requires the construction of two 21 kilometre, east-west railway tunnels. “Our tunnelling systems enables us to operate with what could be described as microsurgical precision in the sensitive underground areas of cities, but without interfering with the existing infrastructure”, explains Achim Kühn, Head of Marketing and Communication for Herrenknecht. Although operations began just 28 months ago, already 80 per cent of the total volume of the work has already been completed. A model of what is currently the largest infrastructural project in Europe can be seen on the stand at InnoTrans. The rail link, measuring 118 kilometres in length, is due to begin operating in 2018. Herrenknecht products can be found in some 100 cities around the world. Location: Hall 5.2, Stand 509, contact Achim Kühn, telephone: +49 (0) 7824 302 4500, email: [email protected]

Bombardier: En route from Canada to Saudi Arabia, the Innovia Monorail is stopping over in Berlin

During its journey from the manufacturing plant in Kingston, Canada, to Riyadh, the first Innovia Monorail 300, built by Bombardier Transportation Systems for the new financial district in the Saudi Arabian capital, is calling in at InnoTrans 2014 in Berlin. Six two-unit monorail trains will be operating on a 3.6 kilometre route, serving six stations. The computer-controlled, driverless monorail is already in service in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the first stretch of what will eventually become the 24-kilometre long metro line 15 has already started operating. On completion of the line the 17 stations will be served by 54 trains, each with seven carriages. This system offers a significantly cheaper alternative to an underground, can ensure a service operating at 75 second intervals, and carrying up to 48,000 passengers in each direction every hour, according to Marco Krönke, Director Product Management for Bombardier. With its rubber tyres the monorail is very quiet, an advantage in inner city areas, and offers outstanding performance on curves and gradients. Location: Outdoor display area FB/12, contact Susanne Schwarz, telephone: +49 (0) 174 -9264623, email: [email protected]

CSR presents a tram without overhead power lines

The Chinese CSR Corporation is presenting two of its latest innovations at InnoTrans 2014. As Yang Ying, Deputy Chief Engineer and Deputy Director of the company’s Research and Development Centre reports, a low floor tram that dispenses with an overhead power line, has already begun trials in Guangzhou and will commence regular services in December. The CSRCAP batteries can be charged in seconds at the tram stops, and provide sufficient energy to enable the next stop to be reached. This system drastically reduces investment costs and the time taken to construct tracks. Also undergoing trials, on the Chinese mainline, is the prototype of an energy-saving high-speed train powered by permanent magnetic traction. According to Yang Ying it is between six and eight per cent more efficient than trains operating with standard traction systems, is 20 per cent lighter and much easier to service. Location: Hall 2.2, Stand 308, contact: Xu Houguang, telephone: +86 10628079, email: [email protected]