2021. The year that is already known as the year of online fairs. The kickoff for the rail infrastructure market related fairs was in March with the RailTech Europe Live. For three full days, visitors were able to follow presentations and workshops, visit online stands, and have personal conversations via the chat option.
“We went in there with no expectations. It is a new way of hosting events and we felt it was important to participate in order to experience it. I particularly enjoyed the chat option and found it easy accessible. I also enjoyed tuning in to conversations, interviews, and presentations. There were quite a few great topics. The biggest advantage of the chat option was that you were able to talk to a lot of people in a short period of time. More so than at an actual fair."
Chris defines himself as an ‘authentic fair person’ and explains that, at a physical fair, you are able to look the other person straight in the eyes and drink a cup of coffee. A lot more social, but also more time consuming. “At a physical fair, you are also able to enter a specific stand and have a look around. Unfortunately, that is impossible at a digital fair like this one.”
Despite the positive experience of RailTech Europe Live, Chris hopes that this will not be normalized in the future. "If that were the case, I’d find it an impoverishment. You miss the spontaneity and the charm of a physical fair."
That does not mean that there is absolutely no room for a digital fair whatsoever. Chris also sees the advantages and thinks that a digital fair could be a good addition to the physical fair. Digitalization would offer the solution in this. Already looking ahead, voestalpine Railway Systems is also organizing a digital conference and exhibition for global rail professionals, set to take place in June. On June 29 our Performance on Track Summit will take place. Discover during this one-day digital summit the latest trends related to performance requirements for the railway track leading to 24/7 availability and optimized lifecycle costs in 2 dedicated conference areas. This summit offers 17 live lectures, a panel discussion and 6 exhibition areas. “I am really curious of what we can expect there. Basically taking in the experience is already a good thing."
With digitalization being prioritized on the agenda of the rail infrastructure market, apart from sustainability, it is not that strange that Chris, too, has his own vision on this. He hopes that, in regards to digitalization, the Railpro products of voestalpine Track Solutions Netherlands B.V. will become the Amazon of the railway market. “Digitalization does make a lot of things a lot easier for us. It truly supports us in our work.”
Naturally, his vision comes with a dream:
My vision in this is as follows: there is a malfunction in the tracks. The technician receives a notification on his tablet and the address of the location is immediately uploaded to his navigation by the system. He drives towards the malfunctioning area, then receives a notification of the malfunction on his tablet as well as the product’s maintenance history and is therefore also able to see when maintenance was held for the last time and what exactly needs to be done in order to fix the malfunction. The product that needs to be replaced has a barcode that can be scanned directly and then ordered in our web shop. The product is then delivered and invoiced.
It will take some time before we get to that point. Because most railway products last for decades, a complete roll-out of digitalization takes time. Besides, the emphasis lies more on sustainability in and around the tracks. Our focus manager re-use and recycling, Akkie Stomphorst, and CEO strategic development, Erno Chevallier, were at the studio of RailTech to talk about ‘a circular railway: a forgotten art’. In the video below, they explain what our vision is and how we plan to achieve it:
Chris also recognizes the importance of the rail infrastructure market in regards to sustainability and a CO2-neutral society. With a higher availability target in the railway infrastructure, digitalization will play an important part. We are going full speed ahead in regards to digitalization as well re-use and recycling. Would you like to know more about what we do with digitalization? Feel free to contact our Application manager E-commerce, Maarten Snijder. Would you like to have more information about our total concept in regards to a circular railway? Contact our Focus manager Akkie Stomphorst.
