Siemens Mobility has officially opened the new Rhine-Ruhr Express (RRX) maintenance depot in Dortmund-Eving, Germany.
Following one and half years of construction, the rail service centre will be used to maintain 82 electric RXX Desiro HC multiple-unit trains for 32 years, under a €1.7bn contract awarded to Siemens by rapid transit associations in March 2015.
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Siemens Mobility CEO Sabrina Soussan said: “With our digitalised service and maintenance, we see ourselves as a pioneer in the industry and will make certain that the RRX trains are reliably available to passengers.
“To ensure this, we’ve equipped the rail service centre and the trains with the latest diagnostic systems that enable us to detect faults before they can actually interfere with operations.”
The new RRX maintenance depot features around 5.5km of tracks, a six-track workshop building, a three-storey warehouse, and a high-performance 3D printer.
Additionally, it includes a gatehouse building, train washing facility, and external storage areas.
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By GlobalDataThe rail service centre is equipped to carry out complete maintenance of vehicles without any paperwork as all workers will receive work orders on tablets.
The workshop also features a new vehicle inspection system (AVI), which examines the trains’ wheels, axles and treads patterns of each car automatically when they enter the facility using modern laser technology.
While in service, the RXX trains will continue to provide their status through multiple sensors to the depot.
Subsequently, the data will be procured and assessed by the Siemens Mobility data experts using intelligent algorithms to assess the performance of each critical component of the trains.
It helps in determining any deviations from normal conditions and predicts the potentiality of malfunctioning in future.
Accordingly, advanced maintenance or repair works of the trains can be scheduled at the depot before the train actually arrives at the centre.
The overall process facilitates efficient maintenance of the vehicles, as well as optimises fleet availability and services.
