TRACKING: A specification and market analysis for cost -effective wagon tracking using the Galileo satellite navigation system has been finalised, with the aim of a product being commercially available by 2011.
Funded by Austria and the German Land of Bayern, the GaWaLoc project is being undertaken by a consortium led by Thales and including the Fraunhofer Institute, Kayser-Threde, Selsys and TriaGnoSys.
As well as real-time tracking, GaWaLoc offers automated information about the condition of each vehicle and detection of unusual activity. It will flag up any deviations from the schedule or expected location. The information is independent of the train operator, giving increased control to shippers.
GaWaLoc will collate and compress information from all the wagons in a train for sending in one blast, rather than individually. ‘The total savings are certainly significant’, according to Robert Sappl of Thales. ‘The GaWaLoc satellite tracking system for railway fleets will help improve productivity, and therefore reduce costs, through more effective operational and maintenance management’.
