Safe train: Axians and Cisco technology at the service of EAV trains in Campania
Greater safety for passengers thanks to the direct connection with the EAV Operations Centre and with the police, train-station connection for monitoring data, images and train positioning as well as more effective on-board services thanks to the screens in the carriages and the possibility of wi-fi access. All this is part of the “Safe Train” project presented this morning in Naples by the President and DG of EAV Umberto De Gregorio in the presence of the Councillor for Research, Innovation and Start-Up of the Campania Region, Valeria Fascione.
The project, promoted by the Ente Autonomo Volturno, was carried out in partnership with the companies Axians (of the Vinci Energies Italia Group) and Cisco that supplied and installed their digital systems. Salvatore Perrot, Managing Director North West, Centre-South of Axians Italia, Enrico Mercadante, Leader Team Sales & Technical Specialists for Southern Europe of Cisco Italia and Pasquale Rovito, Head of Research and Development and RTD of EAV who explains: “It is a communication infrastructure experimentally built in the San Giorgio-Volla Tunnel for a length of about 4 Km. and on a prototype train. Thanks to the new WI-FI technologies used, reliable broadband connectivity is guaranteed even when the train is moving. The elements to achieve a real revolution, a radical change in information systems and services to the public, are all there. The main ingredient is precisely that we have managed to network.”
“For EAV it is not just about using extraordinary technologies, thanks to agreements such as the one signed with Cisco and Axians and the collaboration that has resulted, EAV has done Open Innovation while very often Open Innovation is a theme that is only talked about. In recent years we have had continuous collaborations with the Cisco and Apple Academies, we have participated in several hackathons that have inspired important technical solutions, we have given support to numerous project works of the academy students, and even today we will see an app developed by the students of the Cisco DT Lab, with the support of our Research and Development sector, that leverages technologies developed by Cisco and other partners. Today, thanks to existing funds, we are confident of moving from experimentation to the implementation of executive projects that improve safety and services to the public”, says Umberto de Gregorio, President and General Manager of Ente Autonomo Volturno.
To congratulate the experimentation with the hope that it is only the beginning of a long process of renewal of the line, the Councilor Valeria Fascione: “Thank you very much for this experimentation of safe train that makes the journey more comfortable for everyone, commuters and tourists. A job done together, Region, EAV, University and private companies that has brought a really important result. As a Region we care about all these forms of partnership because we are convinced they are the right way to combine training and work. What we present today is a train that looks to the future, smart, with a particular eye to both health and personal safety, with digital systems that make the journey a real experience thanks to the apps connected to the tourist services of our territory. Today is an example of how we would like public transport to be in our region, we are working for this.”
Salvatore Perrot explains the peculiarities of the technical realization of the plant: “Thanks to the partnership that has binded us to Cisco for some years, we are increasingly able to carry out projects of high technological value such as the one we are presenting today. In the field of transport and in particular the subways, Axians Italia has become increasingly experienced in working even in hostile or difficult to access sites to create the best network architectures and infrastructures. The type of Cisco application that we have adopted for this experimentation, allows us to have a ground-train data communication with traffic experienced without disruption and with a low “handover” therefore with a negligible loss of data packets, minimized thanks to the architecture adopted, despite the train is moving and / or at high speed.”
Innovating with experiments involving companies in the territories in which we operate is extremely important for Cisco,” said Enrico Mercadante, Director Architectures and Innovation for Southern Europe at Cisco. “Naples, in particular, is a hotbed of talent, at the center of an area full of companies like EAV ready to innovate, as demonstrated by the experience we have lived in recent years with the Digital Transformation Lab and our Academy at the Federico Secondo University. The technology that we validate today in this project allows to bring on the mobility on trains the services that require broadband and usually found in the stations. These are cutting-edge solutions, which look to the future and have an Italian heart as they derive from the recent acquisition of Fluidmesh, a company born in Pisa.”
