According to an announcement by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA), by the end of March 2024, the network had reached 40 million passengers, a 167% increase from one year ago. With passenger numbers predicted to continue to rise, demand for reliable rail services in the region has never been greater.
“PRASA is the largest rail passenger transport system in Africa,” says Nokuthula Marjorie Ngonyama, Group Chief Information Officer of PRASA. “We have more than 22000km of railway track in the country and 490 stations. We take about 5.5 billion trips per annum on our network, so our operations are huge.”
To meet this increasing demand, PRASA has spent the past few years overhauling its network, embarking on an ICT strategy that covers connectivity and communication across all its operations and value chains. Since 2011, it has earmarked a total of USD 15 billion to improve transport capacity and service quality, including 7,724 locomotive systems, signal systems in four regions, and wireless communications systems in three regions.
Transformative action
These upgrades began with a GMS-R upgrade, including the construction of digital wireless communications systems for railway lines connecting South Africa’s major cities, such as Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. It also re-engineered signal systems and replaced mobile communications systems that had been operating for nearly 20 years but could no longer deliver secure data communications.
Its new GMS-R system, which marked the first use of ETCS L2-compliant automatic train control systems in Africa, now enables the network to have effective transfer or movement of data from the train into the ground, driving predictive maintenance abilities, improving safety on trains, allowing the network to be more proactive in protecting passengers, and transmitting data that examines driver behaviour.
PRASA’s enterprise network project, meanwhile, provides connectivity across all its offices and stations and enables passengers to connect and utilise data. Its recent shift to the private cloud – which speaks to its data centres where most of its applications sit – also plays a key role in creating more reliable, scalable and secure ICT infrastructure and operations.
PRASA’s latest upgrade, however, is the deployment of an FRMCS-compliant railway perimeter security tool. Theft on South Africa’s tracks is a persistent challenge for the network, particularly where tracks are located near urban areas. Intrusions onto the railway perimeter are common, resulting in heavy losses and high rehabilitation expenses. The plundering of some areas has even led to service interruptions.
Labelled the first optical-visual detection application in rail, PRASA’s new system enables full-process security detection by combining optical-visual linkage with an upper-layer integrated management platform to detect, report and acknowledge alerts.
Developed based on research into the current state-of-the-railways as well as an in-depth analysis of PRASA railway operations and needs, the solution uses intelligent vibration-sensing optical fibre, video AI, and video surveillance, to deliver high stability and reliability in a range of scenarios, including strong winds and heavy rain.
Key partner
Behind each of these developments is Huawei, a long-term partner of PRASA. “In the 2010s we realised the information era and intelligent era were fast approaching and that is when the first partnership with Huawei took place,” says Nokuthula Marjorie Ngonyama. “It was in 2013 that Huawei first partnered with PRASA in the areas of infrastructure and connectivity.”
“This is the world’s first application of optical-visual linkage detection in railways,” says Hishaam Emeran, CEO of PRASA. “PRASA is proud to so readily embrace innovative technologies. Huawei’s optical-visual linkage perimeter protection solution truly solves actual security problems. I’m looking forward to the system being fully operational to bring the team to bring our shareholders to witness this significant investment that we have made around our deport facilities to protect our assets.”
Huawei has been a trusted partner in the railway industry for nearly three decades. According to Jacky Wang, vice president of Huawei’s Smart Transportation BU: “Huawei has always been dedicated to finding the right technology for the right scenario and boosting productivity with technologies. Together with industry partners, we are building a more secure, convenient, intelligent, and eco-friendly transportation industry through technological innovation.”
Download Huawei’s new whitepaper here.
