Around 140,000 visitors from over 131 countries came to the world's leading trade fair for rail infrastructure. 2,834 exhibitors from 56 countries were represented. As a system provider, voestalpine Railway Systems presented its concentrated expertise and its diverse product and service competence.
Globalization, more demand for mobility, demographic change and the loss of know-how present rail infrastructure operators with many challenges. voestalpine Railway Systems, a subsidiary of the Metal Engineering Division of the voestalpine Group and world market leader for system solutions in the field of railroad superstructure infrastructure, provides innovative solutions to these challenges and impressively demonstrated its competence and know-how at InnoTrans, the international trade fair for transport technology in Berlin.
The voestalpine Railway Systems experts were able to demonstrate to their customers and partners how efficient and structured modern asset management works by means of innovative tools, features and exhibits. The intelligent switch records the operating status with coordinated sensors during the entire operation. Analytics tools are used to analyze the data, and the analysis results are presented as a status image. Thanks to highly functional software and integrated tools, the track's assets are monitored and managed throughout the entire product life cycle. The ultimate benefit: uptime-optimized plants, increased availability with optimized lifecycle costs.
We have captured the mood for you and summarized opinions on potential, added value and innovations - the following is an initial assessment:
Mr. Kainersdorfer and Mr. Neureiter, what was your first impression when you came to the booth - and how do you rate the trade show in general as a marketing platform?
Franz Kainersdorfer,
CEO of the Metal Engineering Division and member of the Management Board of voestalpine Group:
My first perception can be described as a real WOW experience. That's why I would like to start by thanking everyone who contributed to this brilliant performance by voestalpine Railway Systems at Innotrans. With our presence at Innotrans, we at voestalpine Railway Systems use an attention-grabbing stage and an outstanding forum to present ourselves as a systems provider with our competence and our premium products. Over the last two decades, I have been able to follow Innotrans; this is where the international players in the railroad infrastructure industry meet - for us, it is always a perfect platform to enter into an inspiring exchange with customers about our innovations and services, and to be able to show our products and systems on site.
Innotrans was held again this year after four years, and it was noticeable that there was a great spirit among the participants and customers. I am convinced that voestalpine Railway Systems was able to achieve a great deal here in terms of setting the future course for modern, sustainable mobility.
Günter Neureiter, CEO of the voestalpine Railway Systems Group:
Although I knew all the details of the stand from the planning, I was overwhelmed to see it in real life. It was pure voestalpine Railway Systems: Our appearance, for the first time as a system supplier, was outstanding, and the feedback from our partners and customers also testified to this. We were also pleased to see an unprecedented number of visitors. New solutions and innovations are presented at Innotrans, and it is one of the largest networking platforms - especially after the contact-reduced pandemic years, this trade fair was one of the best opportunities to get back into direct conversation with our partners.
74% of the trade visitors wanted to find out about trends and innovations - what "surprises" for enthusiastic customers did voestalpine Railway Systems offer in this respect?
Nadja Jungwirth, CSO, Profit Center Rail:
We have a versatile product portfolio and offer innovations in all segments and in every product category. There was great interest from our customers for digitization/digital track management, new services and new products for more efficiency and more safety. Within the rail infrastructure sector, people know each other - often for many years. - For me, the main aspect of Innotrans was to raise existing contacts and cooperations to a "next level" with regard to the major challenges of the mobility revolution.
Mark de Vries, CEO, Competence Center Track Solutions:
With our digital features and exhibits, our partners were able to gain really good insights into the performance of our premium products and systems in combination with our Smart Services. The clear presentation of these total solutions, which always achieve the best results over the life cycle, were received with interest.
How did you feel about the atmosphere, which is also strongly influenced by the experience of the Railway Systems trade fair stand?
Markus Maier, CSO PC Signaling, SVP Marketing & Communications:
The spirit and energy from customers and colleagues was sensational at Innotrans. Our Innotrans motto this year was "Performance in Digital Solutions", we discussed future options, showed new potentials - in short, our booth offered - also with the corresponding digital exhibits - an optimal opportunity to talk to regular and new customers on a very high level.
Helmut Kreiter, CEO voestalpine Turnout Technology Zeltweg:
Innotrans remains the world's most important platform for presenting innovative technologies in the rail industry. With our very successful stand, which for the first time showed the entire Railway Systems portfolio, we made one of the most important statements in the infrastructure sector. Our positioning as a system provider, not only in the product area but also in the service and logistics area and, above all, in digitization, has been extremely successful and was the subject of many successful customer meetings during the trade show.
When you review the conversations - what was the focus of customer interest?
Jochen Holzfeind,
CTO of the Railway Systems Group:
The most exciting topic for us at the moment is certainly the application of the possibilities offered by digitization. A significant added value lies in our product- and system-based knowledge. We are known for bundling and linking this knowledge to meet the needs of our customers, and our customers appreciate this.
57.3 percent of the trade visitors came from abroad. Does this mean that the trade show is also a complete success in international terms?
Dieter Schluck,
CEO and Reginal Sales Officer voestalpine Railway Systems Asia:
Asia has been extremely affected by pandemic restrictions over the last two or three years: Innotrans now offered the first opportunity to meet high-ranking delegations. The fact that Railway Systems are now system suppliers opens up completely new levels for us and our customers to allow contacts to flourish again.
