Digitalising the Railways with CODA

10 October 2018

The UK's rail infrastructure is getting some headline coverage at the moment and unfortunately, not all news is good news. However, here at CODA we have been working with a couple of the larger rail operators and seeing some positive results as we use IoT to digitalise the railway stations.

CODA’s CEO Dan Shields talks about the positive impact IoT and big data solutions (the CODA device) is having on the railway stations around the UK.

There are 2,500 railway stations in the UK, and with the increase in rail passengers and railway station users, the pressures and economies of scale for stations are mounting. Up to a third of the total operating cost for train operators is energy spend – much of that energy is being used without cause, is unmonitored and often wasted as a result of equipment performance, operations and maintenance.

The digitalisation of the sector has been mooted for years but now more than ever it is at the forefront of managers’ minds. The advent of IoT technology is a change to be harnessed. Embraced because it can deliver energy and operational risk management, reducing not only energy spend and power consumption but time, effort, and the biggest bonus of all money.

IoT has quickly become the go-to for businesses to understand how and where they can reduce and optimise building costs and equipment performance. Innovation in digitalisation delivers safety, customer experience, environmental and operational efficiency. It also streamlines processes, improves efficiency and reliability. Plus it increases performance and identifies weaknesses to be addressed.

Tangible benefits approaching half a million pounds have already been recouped by our CODA IoT solution across just a few hundred stations and something as simple as digitalising lighting created a £200k financial benefit for one rail operator.

Close evaluation of a sample identified how digitalisation improved:

• Operations
• Energy efficiency
• Financial savings across lighting, asset life, tenant metering and station upgrade works
• Capacity alerting
• Safety and customer experience

The majority of the savings were achieved by digitalising lighting across the station providing remote automation, zoned controls, intelligent dimming plus proactive and remote maintenance. From continuous commissioning and remote diagnostics, CODA reduced the cost and management of the timed yearly and reactive maintenance visits.