WHITEPAPER

ON TRACK FOR
DIGITAL RAIL 2023
A COLLECTION OF MEDIA FROM
SOME OF THE TOPICS TO BE
EXPLORED THIS SEPTEMBER

JOIN US AT

Click Here
for details
INTRODUCTION
Hello from Elizabeth and the
Global Railway Review Team!
We at Global Railway Review can’t wait to welcome
you all to Digital Rail Live 2023 this September.
In preparation of the wonderful conversations,
inspiring panels and ground-breaking presentations
set to take place, we have put together this, the first
of two whitepapers.
Digital Rail is Global Railway Review’s flagship
annual event focusing on the increased use of
digital solutions and innovative services in the
railway industry.
Bringing global railway leaders together to showcase
their developments and share their experiences with
a live in-person audience, through panel discussions,
CONTENTS
04 IOT & ADVANCED ANALYTICS
Norway’s digital
14
railway comes of age
Sverre Kjenne, EVP of
Operations and Technology
at Bane NOR
16
08
VIDEO INTERVIEW: DIGITAL
MONITORING & MAINTENANCE
How digital rail can
fast track rail
communications networks
18
Hansen Chan, IP Product
Marketing Manager at Nokia
10 CYBER-SECURITY
Rail’s need for
cyber‑resilience and
digital solutions solutions
in the face of rising
cyber‑threats
Michael Bradford, Director Delmia
Strategic Business Development
B globalrailwayreview.com
in‑depth presentations or more intimate fireside chats.
Digital Rail Live’s 2023 agenda consists of the
prominent themes of the industry for the past few
years- from Digital Monitoring & Maintenance to
Digital Automatic Coupling and Cyber Security/
Protecting Assets.
This whitepaper dives into three of these topics,
across various media platforms, to bring inspiration
to you in advance of the panel discussions
and conversations that will be taking place at
Digital Rail 2023. The topics explored in this
whitepaper are: Digital Monitoring & Maintenance,
BIM & Digital Twins and Cyber Security.
INTERVIEW SPOTLIGHT
The ‘one-stop-shop’
for rail cyber-security
21 BIM & DIGITAL TWINS
BIM Enabled Overhead
Line Design and
Roie Onn, CEO and Co‑founder Engineering
of Cervello Bentley Systems
22
VIDEO: BIM & DIGITAL TWINS
CYBER-SECURITY
Driving better outcomes
Alstom sign MoU to
advance knowledge of across the rail lifecycle
cyber-security in rail with digital twins
Bentley Systems
Elliot Robinson (Editorial Assistant
23
- Global Railway Review)
EBOOK: BIM & DIGITAL TWINS
BIM & DIGITAL TWINS Deliver better rail asset
Digital stations: lifecycle outcomes with
meeting passenger
needs and net-zero goals
Hansen Chan, IP Product
digital twins
Supported by: Bentley
Marketing for Industries, Nokia
 FIND O
U
MORE T
CORE TOPICS:

DIGITAL
TWINS CYBER-SECURITY

ASSET ALTERNATIVE
MAINTENANCE FUELS

INTELLIGENT DIGITAL
INFRASTRUCTURES
SIGNALLING

C O M E A
BE R
PASSENGER ROLLING STOCK
SPONSO
MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION

DIGITAL
VIRTUAL AUTOMATIC
REALITY COUPLING
EVENT
PARTNER
IOT & ADVANCED ANALYTICS

Norway’s digital
railway comes of age
With Industry 4.0 becoming an increasingly vital part of Norway’s railway industry,
Sverre Kjenne, EVP of Operations and Technology at Bane NOR, explains how the digital
railway will profoundly change the way people work and what elements the rail industry
will gain from these changes.

T
HE DIGITAL RAILWAY was introduced
in Norway some years ago with the
aim to utilise modern technology from
Industry 4.0 to improve operations.
Bane NOR has While Industry 3.0 was all about automating
collaborated with muscle power using robotics, Industry 4.0 aims
Microsoft, among to blur the lines between the physical and digital
world using technology such as artificial intelligence
others, to study how
(AI). In essence, Industry 4.0 is about automating
data can serve as brain power. The result is increased automation,
the basis for smarter improved communication, and the ability to
and more proactive analyse and diagnose conditions without human
maintenance. intervention. The digital railway will profoundly
change the way we work in the rail industry.
Although changes do not happen overnight in the
rail industry, a revolution is currently taking place.
We will see the start of a new era:
● Intelligent models of railway infrastructure
before construction which help to cut costs
in new projects
● Safety improved by monitoring of trains
and tracks
● Improved punctuality thanks to less time lost
due to faults (less faults and reduced time
to repair)
● Capacity improved by optimal distance

4 globalrailwayreview.com

between trains by utilising Automatic Train
Operation (ATO)
● Energy consumption reduced by optimal speed
and acceleration by utilising ATO
● Allocation of funds in operations enhanced by
maintenance and renewal determined by the
condition of the objects.
Operating model
Bane NOR illustrates the components of the
operational digital railway through a pyramid.
The overall digitalisation programme has a budget
of more than €3 billion and is the largest of its kind
in the public sector in Norway.
Transmission is the artery of the digital
railway and should never fail. Bane NOR has
approximately 5,000km of fibre optic cables in
a fully redundant network.
The traffic radio GSM-R was previously used for
voice communication only. With ERTMS, GSM-R is
also used for data communication. GSM-R is based
@GlobalRailway
Global Railway Review | Whitepaper
on a 2G solution. The foreseen upgrade to 5G will
add opportunities for the digital railway.
Norway is upgrading its signalling systems
for the whole country from mainly relay-based
technology to ERTMS. Bane NOR has chosen
a ‘one country, one interlocking, one data centre’
approach to maximise standardisation. All trains
in Norway are being rebuilt with ETCS. The ERTMS
programme is a key building block for the digital
railway. A detailed study is underway to analyse the
possible benefits with ATO over ETCS. The expected
benefits to be found are in increased capacity and The use of machine
energy savings. learning to optimise
‘Smart maintenance’ is all about utilising asset management
Industry 4.0 to improve uptime of the infrastructure for improved
and optimise the allocation of funds related to
uptime and efficient
maintenance and renewal. Bane NOR has lessons
maintenance
learned that I will come back to.
A new Train Management System (TMS) is being has tremendous
installed. There will eventually be one TMS for possibilities in the
all lines in Norway. The new system will improve rail industry.
5
IOT & ADVANCED ANALYTICS
automation, including how to deal with exceptions
to the normal operation.
Applications are developed for end users,
operators, and own personnel. Apps contain
information to travellers and operators.
Own personnel require access to digital information
on all objects to optimise maintenance and
fault corrections.
Smart maintenance
The initial driving force behind the smart
maintenance initiative was improved punctuality.
The target was to be able to identify an object
that was going to fail before it did so, and hence
be able to take corrective actions to avoid
downtime. Analysis showed that the three objects
most likely to cause downtime were interlockings,
point machines and track circuits. The ERTMS
Norway is upgrading programme deals with the interlockings so that the
focus was on point machines and track circuits.
its signalling systems
The chosen solution for the point machines
for the whole country
was to measure the current and time to identify
from mainly relay- deviations from normal operations. In the first
based technology approach, thresholds were set based on measuring
to ERTMS. a normal situation. An alarm was raised if actuals
6 globalrailwayreview.com
were outside the thresholds. The benefit of this
approach was simplicity. It is important to avoid
false alarms to build trust in the solution. The next
step was to build algorithms including machine
learning to have an early indication that a fault was
in progress. The algorithms analyse how the current
and time develops over a period and can indicate
whether there is an issue before a threshold is
reached. The purpose is to give an early warning
to allow maintenance to be scheduled. The sensor
data is stored in the cloud and available for
further analysis.
Bane NOR has collaborated with Microsoft,
among others, to study how data can serve as the
basis for smarter and more proactive maintenance.
The world class expertise gained from Microsoft
helped us to optimise maintenance activities for the
Norwegian rail network.
Smart maintenance is currently an addition
to generic time-based maintenance to avoid
faults. The next step for it is to replace time-based
maintenance with a combination of work orders
based on the actual condition generated by the
algorithms and optimising maintenance intervals
based upon parameters such as actual usage,
 Global Railway Review | Whitepaper

SVERRE KJENNE

Sverre is a graduate
engineer from
Manchester (UMIST)
with an MBA from
Lausanne (IMD). He has
broad experience
from managing listed
and privately‑owned
industrial and
technology companies
in Norway and abroad.
Sverre is a driving force
behind the digital railway
initiative in Norway.

age, environment etc. The aim is to have a more
effective maintenance by touching objects only
when required.
The technology issues have been easier to
address than changing the way the organisation
works. Work orders from the computer algorithm
have not always received priority out in the field.
It takes time for an organisation to truly embrace
the new way of working.
Smart maintenance is closely linked to asset
management. An obvious development is to have
the algorithm suggest when an object should
be replaced and not just maintained. The use of
machine learning to optimise asset management
for improved uptime and efficient maintenance has
tremendous possibilities in the rail industry.
The future
I see a future where most objects have sensors to
monitor their condition. This includes the physical
@GlobalRailway
track with vibrations and slides. All the data will
be collected in real time and stored in a central
database for further analysis. Work orders will
be automatically scheduled based upon safety,
uptime, and efficiency.
Trains fitted with sensors can provide an
important source of data about the quality
of tracks and catenary systems. The use of
sensors on trains will develop rapidly and
give invaluable information on the quality
of rail infrastructure.
Today, sensors have a low cost and a high
reliability. Connectivity is not an issue as standards
exist. Data storage and computer power are Trains fitted with
not limiting factors. Machine learning is well
sensors can provide
understood. All elements are available for the rail
an important source
industry to gain from Industry 4.0. It is a question
about competence and focus inside our own of data about the
organisations to enter the modern age. It is time quality of tracks and
to embrace the possibilities. catenary systems.
7
DIGITAL MONITORING & MAINTENANCE

How digital rail can

fast track rail
communications
networks

Click Here To Watch

Hansen Chan, IP Product Marketing Manager at

Nokia, talks to Global Railway Review, about the role
of communications networks within a digital rail system.

O
N THIS video interview, Hansen Chan
discusses the key benefits of digital rail
and its ability to fast track rail
communications networks, improving
efficiency and safety.
Hansen explains that digital rail encompasses
the use of digital technologies, such as Internet of
Things (IoT) devices, sensors, data analytics, and
automation, to transform various aspects of railway
operations. These technologies enable real-time
monitoring, data collection, analysis, and decision-
making, resulting in enhanced performance, reduced
downtime, and optimised resource allocation.
Watch the video interview above or on the Global
Railway Review YouTube channel link now.

8 globalrailwayreview.com
 FIND O
U
MORE T
CORE TOPICS:

DIGITAL
TWINS CYBER-SECURITY

ASSET ALTERNATIVE
MAINTENANCE FUELS

INTELLIGENT DIGITAL
INFRASTRUCTURES
SIGNALLING

C O M E A
BE R
PASSENGER ROLLING STOCK
SPONSO
MANAGEMENT
INFORMATION

DIGITAL
VIRTUAL AUTOMATIC
REALITY COUPLING
EVENT
PARTNER
CYBER-SECURITY

Rail’s need for cyber-resilience

and digital solutions solutions in
the face of rising cyber-threats
With the world facing uncertainty after continued crisis’,
Dimitri van Zantvliet, Chief Information Security Officer and
Joseph Mager, Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at
NS (Dutch Railways), explore how the rail sector can maintain
resilience in an evolving cyber threat landscape.

In a world in turmoil, we need cut costs, change focus to necessary operations

to keep calm and stay on track
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, it became
evident how vital public transport was for the
logistics of medical personnel to their hospitals.
One of the many downsides of COVID-19 was that
most commuters had to work from home or took
a car to work and stopped using public transport
all together. Most railway organisations had to
only and facilitate remote work to their employees.
On top of the pandemic came the horrible war in
Ukraine. Many railways in the area were directly
or indirectly affected and worries arose for cyber
It is time to give
spill-over effects throughout Europe. In the same
more traction
time period, the ransomware business rose to
one‑billion-dollar turnover and the amount of to railway
zero‑days increased with 200 per cent. How do we cyber‑resilience.

10 globalrailwayreview.com
 Global Railway Review | Whitepaper

DIMITRI VAN ZANTVLIET

Dimitri joined NS (Dutch

Railways) in 2021 as
their Chief Information
Security Officer (CISO).
He has been in the field
for three decades and
working previously as CIO
and CTO. Dimitri holds
a master’s degree in
Business Administration
and CISSP, CRISC,
CISA, CISM, CDPSE,
CIPP/E, CIPM, FIP
cyber certificates.
as railway undertakers and infrastructure managers
Cyber-security skills must be
deal with such a volatile threat landscape? How can
we find the right balance between resilience and
involved in the acquisition
firefighting mode? How do we make sure that of new equipment and assets
increasing digitalisation is not opening up new risk to ensure the proper cyber-security
areas? The answer is that we need to learn and find requirements are included.
out together in close collaboration within the sector.
We are confident that this is possible.
as well as the dependence on these systems for the
The need for digital solutions increases continuity and safety of the railway operation.
Although the COVID-19 crisis is hardly overcome
and passenger numbers are still not matching Leading to an increase in cyber risks
pre-COVID-19 numbers, the sector must prepare for The increasing reliance on information and
an increase in passenger volume over the coming operational technology and the increased speed of
decade. Due to the on-going urbanisation as well digitalisation is matched by an unprecedented rise
as the call for de-carbonisation, public transport in cyber-crime. New digital services connected via
has a pivotal role to play to ensure freedom of the internet will lead to an extended attack surface.
movement for this and the generations to come. Hence, everything that is connected to the internet
To meet these challenges making optimal use of will be scanned and partly attacked automatically.
digitalisation is mandatory. Exfiltrating data and encrypting victims data is
In this respect the introduction of ERTMS (the the new norm. Research shows that the majority
European Rail Traffic Management System) plays of organisations that paid the first ransomware
a vital role. ERTMS will enable the European demand were hit again in less than a month, JOSEPH MAGER
rail sector to make better use of the railway paying an even higher ransom the second time,
Joseph joined NS (Dutch
infrastructure by increasing the frequency of trains and paying up didn’t prevent the data from being
Railways) in 2011. He is
and, at the same time, increasing the safety of sold on the darkweb too. New features need to be
currently Deputy Chief
railway transport. To enable this amongst others, developed cyber-secure by design and default to Information Security
signalling information currently still displayed using mitigate the risks that come with them. Officer (CISO) focussing
physical signalling posts alongside the tracks is New digital services also come with new on compliancy, national
and international
replaced by digital information presented to the challenges if we exchange data throughout the wide
co-operation,
train driver directly in the cabin. As such, physical supply chain. A recent example would be the Apache
and operational
equipment is replaced by digital equipment. LOG4J vulnerability that turned up to be encoded technology. He holds
As a result of this, the interaction of the digital just everywhere. Overnight we needed to collaborate a Master’s degree
systems of the infrastructure managers responsible as operators, suppliers, manufacturers, and cloud in Mathematics and
a masters in Information
for the track side and those of the railway service providers to make sure that public transport
Security Management.
undertaking responsible for the trains, will increase, remained safe and timely. It turned out to be a good

@GlobalRailway
11
CYBER-SECURITY
FIGURE 1
Mixed ERTMS levels on the same track.
© Marten de Vries/Wikipedia
exercise in collaborative incident response teaming.
Analysts expect attackers to move further into
the operational technology stack too. In 2022,
new Swiss Army knife-like operational technology
malware toolboxes were launched that can pose
serious threats to physical safety too.
So, with the extending attack surface
(digitalisation) comes an ever-evolving threat
landscape (digital crime). To top it off, we need
to comply to increased cyber-security regulation,
frameworks and shields up executive orders.
It is time to give more traction to railway
cyber‑resilience.
FIGURE 2
Railway Asset model by Cenelec TS50701
12
Cyber-resilience within our sector is
needed to mitigate these risks
Our sector has a long-standing familiarity with
dealing with a related topic: safety. From its
early days, the rail sector has been focussing
on providing a safe journey to its passengers.
Nowadays, we must use this same mentality to
provide a cyber-secure travel experience to our
passengers. To achieve this, our cyber-security
control frameworks need to tackle compliance
(cyber-laws), risks that come with prementioned
digitalisation and threats that emerge from
highly skilled digital organised crime groups.
globalrailwayreview.com

Cyber‑resilience needs to encompass all these
areas in its strategic approach.
Cyber-security skills must be involved in the
acquisition of new equipment and assets to
ensure the proper cyber-security requirements are
included. To assist in drafting these requirements,
use can be made of standards describing all the
functions in the train as well as the TS 50701 for
analysing the risks and determining the required
security levels and zones. This becomes especially
important in case cyber-security interacts with
safety. The same standards can be used to
analyse the risks in the current infrastructure and
fleet. This kind of analysis leads to a theoretical
indication of the various risks. To assess whether
these risks are as envisaged penetration tests
can be applied throughout the asset lifecycle. In
such a test the attack methods of actual hackers
are mimicked to get a better grip on the actual
likelihood of a cyber‑attack being successful.
To carry out these tests a combined team of IT/
hacking specialists and train engineers is more
effective.
But not without co-operation in
the sector and the supply chain
To get a better grip on the evolving threat
landscape, the growing attack surface
and compliance requirements, national and
@GlobalRailway
Global Railway Review | Whitepaper
international co-operation within the sector is
necessary. A vehicle to exchange this kind of
information is an ISAC (Information Sharing and
Analysis Centre). Within An ISAC information is
shared on threats, vulnerabilities (weaknesses that
can be exploited by hackers), cyber-security incidents
and lessons learned is exchanged. Within various
countries ISACs are set-up for this purpose. At the
European level, a European Rail ISAC has been
set‑up with support of the UIC.
To provide guidance and input for standardisation,
the Community of European Railway and
Infrastructure Companies (CER) support group
has been established which co‑operates with
the Cyber Expert Group of the EIM and experts To get a better grip
from UNIFE in the workstream on Cyber Security, on the evolving
thus ensuring the co-operation of infrastructure
threat landscape,
managers, railway undertakings and their suppliers
to counter the increase in cyber‑threat and enabling
the growing
the railway sector to make optimal use of digital attack surface
solutions to cater for the mobility needed in the and compliance
decades to come. requirements,
Finally, business and cyber-security national and
decision‑makers in the sector need to work
international co-
together to facilitate the optimal exchange of
real‑time threat intelligence and long-term strategic
operation within
visions on cyber‑security defence, compliance, risk the sector is
management and alignment with physical security. necessary
Railway cyber-security has become ‘chefsache!’.
13
INTERVIEW SPOTLIGHT
The ‘one-stop-shop’ for rail cyber-security
Roie Onn, CEO and Co-founder of Cervello, tells all about how their purpose-built for
rail platform gives railway managers knowledge of their exact cyber-security posture
from one unified management console.
How does Cervello’s end-to-end
cyber‑security platform work?
Cervello’s platform is a passive, non-intrusive
When seeing the software that monitors and identifies real‑time
cyber threats in railway networks from
functionality for the
end‑to‑end. Upon deployment either on-premise
first time, they get or cloud‑based, the platform monitors rail
excited by a cyber networks’ operational, safety and element
platform that control levels for suspicious activities. Using
monitors, measures zero‑trust technology and machine learning
and translates to analyse network traffic, Cervello provides
railway managers with detailed information on
cyber risk into rail
the critical risk contained in their infrastructure,
terminology. rolling stock, signalling, OT, IT and IoT
systems – all in one dashboard for a ‘one-stop’
visualisation of its cyber-security posture at any
given moment.
Railway managers also receive prioritised
cyber risk with playbook recommendations
on how to mitigate the risk and details on the
operational impact of that risk. With each alert,
railway managers understand what rail assets are
compromised and what services and stations
are affected. As the platform is purpose-built for
rail, every cyber risk is analysed and reported as
it relates to the railway’s operations, safety and
business requirements.
14
What feedback have you received
from customers so far?
Customers are most impressed by the in-
depth level of our knowledge of rail operations
and requirements embedded in our cyber
technology. When seeing the functionality for the
first time, they get excited by a cyber platform that
monitors, measures and translates cyber risk into
rail terminology.
Our customers have referred to Cervello as
the bridge that connects the two worlds of cyber
and rail, making it simple for railway managers
to respond quickly and accurately to the risks
that matter most. With our cyber platform, rail
managers know their exact cyber-security posture
at any given moment, and what they need to do
if there is an issue. Beyond the direct association
of cyber issues and operational consequences,
our customers love having the ability to isolate
a compromised area, while they deal with
the problem.
In addition, our customers have been very
pleased with the deployment options for
on‑premise or cloud, the simple integration of our
platform with all third-party vendors, the intuitive
management console and the quick response from
our professional service teams.
globalrailwayreview.com
 Global Railway Review | Whitepaper

What are some of railways’ biggest pain Finally, Cervello

points that are solved by Cervello’s platform? has become the
‘one-stop-shop’
Our customers differ when it comes to voicing for rail cyber-
their biggest pain points. In fact, what sometimes security. For a
starts off as a major pain point, changes to others long time, railway
during the deployment and operation processes. organisations have
However, common is the emerging cyber-security been desperate
standards and regulations currently formulating to have one
around the world. Cervello is on top of these unified dashboard
developments as members of our team participate integrating all its
in several international working groups. When it cyber tools and
comes to standards like ISA/IEC 62443, TS 50701 data. Having the
and the TSA Directives, Cervello fulfils and enables knowledge of its exact
compliance with the most challenging components. cyber-security posture
The full portfolio extends beyond other aspects of from one management
regulatory compliance. console is extremely
The second pain point relates to the lack of valuable to rail personnel
options for real-time threat detection in the – and not to mention, it is
critical rail systems. Most cyber solutions have a huge cost saving.
been developed with either IT or OT in mind and
they don’t fit the requirements of railways’ critical
systems like signalling and rolling stock. Railways
are complex systems of legacy and modernised
components, with the utmost concern always
placed on customer security without compromising
safety. Here is where Cervello shines as our
platform was developed solely with railways’ safety,
operational and business requirements in mind.
We have achieved what others thought impossible,
providing cutting-edge, real-time threat detection
ROIE ONN
that covers the entire railway system.
The third pain point is the lack of full network Roie has extensive
visibility, which is very difficult to achieve. experience in
With numerous third-party vendors offering cyber-security
proprietary closed systems, cyber personnel are – specialising in
challenged to get a full picture of their network hacking operations,
at any given moment. Cervello’s solution delivers risk assessments,
complete, end-to-end network visibility including malware analysis and
a deep understanding of every asset behaviour and computer forensics.
its cyber‑security posture.

@GlobalRailway
15
CYBER-SECURITY
Alstom sign MoU to
advance knowledge of
cyber-security in rail
Alstom have signed a MoU with the Rochester Institute of Technology’s
ESL Global Cybersecurity Institute to strengthen rail cyber-security.
A
LSTOM AND THE Rochester Institute
of Technology’s (RIT) ESL Global
Cybersecurity Institute (GCI) have
signed a three-year Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) outlining their collaboration
to advance transportation cyber‑security,
specifically in the areas of education,
development, and research.
Strengthening cyber-security in rail transport
Alstom and RIT’s ESL GCI have established five
pillars of collaboration, which include Alstom ‘as
a teacher’ and student projects, student/talent
16
recruitment activities, corporate training and
education, and sponsored research.
“Alstom’s innovative mobility solutions are
helping to revolutionise railways and railway
communications by boosting intelligence
and functionality in rail assets,” Eddy Thésée,
Vice‑President of Cyber-Security Products and
Solutions for Alstom, said. “In a world driven by
digital, having assurance that data and connected
systems are protected is a basic requirement to
ensure continuous operations. For this reason,
Alstom has placed cyber-security at the heart of its
culture of excellence and safety. However, adding
globalrailwayreview.com
 Global Railway Review | Whitepaper

more connectivity and intelligence to operations associated operational disruptions leveraging

is increasing the exposure of railway systems to industry best practices and standards. Alstom will
external threats. These threats are fast changing, work with RIT’s ESL GCI to model and develop the
and we must continuously adjust our technologies 2023 collegiate testing competition environment
and defence strategies. Partnering with institutions that will focus on railway signalling. Alstom’s innovative
such as RIT’s ESL GCI creates value for the entire
mobility solutions
rail sector and cyber-security industry.”
are helping to
Scarcity of cyber-security professionals is revolutionise
a challenge across all major industries. This is the WE ARE THRILLED railways and railway
communications by
first North American partnership for Alstom and will
TO ANNOUNCE THE
enable it to enhance its workforce with well-trained boosting intelligence
cyber-security engineers to help its customers, RELEASE OF OUR NEW and functionality
particularly with regards to implementing security
protection at the local, state and government level.
DIGITAL ROUNDTABLE, in rail assets.
RIT students will have premiere access to Alstom “SAFER LEVEL CROSSINGS”.
cyber-security engineers and experts via student
capstone projects, Alstom-taught signal‑security
curricula, graduate sponsored research projects, This exclusive roundtable on rail safety
and career opportunities. Through the MoU, is specifically related to level crossings.
Alstom will have access to future talent and the Curated by Global Railway Review and
latest knowledge to develop future technologies moderated by Allan Spence, Chair of the UIC
that will make digital technology smarter and Global Level Crossing Network (GLCN) and
more resilient to cybersecurity threats. Isabelle Fonverne, Senior Advisor, Safety and
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s Interoperability, UIC, participants from SNCF,
requirements set forth in its recent directive Network Rail, Trafikverket and more.
institutionalise and build upon existing, effective ELLIOT ROBINSON
To get your hands on this exclusive
industry practices with an increased focus on
roundtable and gain invaluable knowledge
strengthening and safeguarding America’s cyber- Elliot Robinson (Editorial
about the latest breakthroughs in the field, Assistant - Global
security for critical infrastructure. Alstom plans
simply download it today. Railway Review)
to demonstrate with CPTC modelling, how it can
secure customers’ rail networks and prevent

@GlobalRailway
17
CYBER SECURITY

Digital stations:
meeting passenger needs
and net-zero goals
Hansen Chan, IP Product Marketing for Industries, Nokia, discusses the
advent of digital stations and details how the Nokia digital station network
blueprint can help operators overcome the network challenges that they
are currently facing.

What are digital stations?
Digital stations are train stations whose operations
are going digital together with the rest of the rail
infrastructure. On the one hand, rail operators are
introducing new digital station applications for
more efficient, safe operations. On the other hand,
digital stations are more than technology‑centric
digital operations. It is also about translating
new operational capabilities to tangible
passenger benefits. As the entry point to a train
journey, it enables rail operators to provide
a passenger‑oriented, convenient environment, as
well as creative and agile rail services.
As rail service usage is coming back to normal
levels, and expected to grow over the coming years,
efficient station operations, safe in-station passenger
flow, and better journey experience have become
more important than ever. Consequently, the subject
of digital stations is now on top of rail operators’ minds.
In what ways do current station networks
not meet the needs of new requirements
needed by digital stations?
Most station networks in use today are built with
enterprise LANs architecture that serves railway
company’s corporate data and VoIP needs. It was
not architected and deployed with a mission‑critical
networking mind set like the operational technology
(OT) telecom networks. They fall short in multiple
areas, such as:

18 globalrailwayreview.com

Digital stations are
fundamental to an operator’s
capabilities to satisfy evolving
passenger needs.
„ Robust resiliency: granted that station
applications are not safety-critical
like automatic train control, they are
operational‑critical as station staff
depends on them to 360-degree situational
awareness of the station and to identify
possible crime and other trouble spots.
Hence robust network resiliency with self-
healing capabilities is key to ensure high
application availability, particularly during
ongoing incidents.
„ High scalability for application and traffic
growth: current station networks are mostly
built as enterprise LANs with 100Mb/s or
1Gb/s trunk speed. However, with high
resolution CCTV cameras transmitting at
higher bit rate and proliferating everywhere
in the station to monitor passenger security,
plus more applications such as edge
computing emerging, higher trunk speed
is needed.
„ High-density high-wattage power over Ethernet
support: equipment (e.g. Wi-Fi access points,
clock, passenger information displays) deployed
in stations does not only increase in number but
also in the power needed (e.g. CCTV camera).
Currently deployed enterprise LAN switches
simply do not meet these needs.
„ Cyber-security: railway infrastructure is
a high‑profile attack target. Therefore, stations
need a secure-by-design network to be part of the
zero-trust multi-layer cyber defence framework.
@GlobalRailway
Global Railway Review | Whitepaper
HANSEN CHAN
IP Product Marketing for
Industries, Nokia,
To what extent will the advent of the
digital station help to achieve meeting
evolving passenger needs and to help
achieve the ambitious net zero goal?
Digital stations are fundamental to an operator’s
capabilities to satisfy evolving passenger needs.
For instance, with the use of video sensors and
AI/ML-driven analytics, station staff can detect
anomalies early on, from detecting sudden reverse
human flow or loitering crowd during late night to
identifying passengers in physical needs. This will
make the stations safer and more passenger
friendly. On the other hand, a digital station
can also be a public transit hub orchestrating
multimodal transport. Displaying transfer bus
departure time information for passengers
stepping off the train can facilitate a less stressful
commute experience.
By meeting evolving passengers needs and
improving the journey experience, more people
would prefer rail services to driving their own
cars or using car-sharing services. This would
help reduce carbon emission levels. Additionally,
increased ridership would also improve fiscal
sustainability of rail operations.
Moreover, with digital stations as part of digital
rail infrastructure, operators are ready to embrace
new innovations as they accelerate on their digital with digital stations
transformation journey. as part of digital
rail infrastructure,
Please explain how the Nokia digital operators are
station network blueprint works ready to embrace
new innovations
The blueprint adopts an application-centric
approach for a multiservice network that is ready as they accelerate
to scalably support current and future applications. on their digital
With an application-centric approach, the blueprint transformation
will treat data traffic from each application with journey.
19
CYBER SECURITY
pre-configured service and quality-of-service
profiles, according to the application latency,
bandwidth, and connectivity needs. This ensures
consistent high application performance.
The blueprint architecture comprises
high‑performance, secure, and resilient 10Gbps access
FIGURE 1
The Nokia digital station network blueprint.
20
Ethernet fibre rings that would interconnect the
backbone core networks. The access ring is essentially
a ring of industrialised Ethernet switches serving
a certain area or level of stations. It collects data
from attached equipment including CCTV cameras,
passenger information displays and announcement
systems, and aggregates them towards the backbone
core networks for operations and control centres
(OCCs) and data centres (see Figure 1).
How will this blueprint help operators
to overcome the network challenges
they are currently facing?
The blueprint was created with the latest
networking innovations to help tackle the
challenges faced by railway operators.
The station needs high network availability
to provide a safe passenger environment.
Instead of using an enterprise-class resiliency
mechanism such as spanning tree protocol (STP),
it uses mission‑critical class G.8032 Ethernet ring
protection emulating optical SONET/SDH ring
protection. For the utmost resiliency, the Ethernet
ring can have two gateway nodes for multi-chassis
nodal redundancy, as well as interconnects to two
backbone core network domains.
The blueprint is scalable. It can increase the
number of switches in a ring for medium-sized
stations or adopt a multi-ring architecture for
large-sized stations. The blueprint switches, while
compact, has exceptionally high port density
and large wattage to drive a large number of
high‑power PoE (power over Ethernet) for CCTV
cameras and Wi-Fi access points. Its high Ethernet
port density and 10 Gigabit Ethernet link provides
huge room for future digitalisation initiatives.
The blueprint is secure-by-design. Besides the
usual nodal security capabilities, it can encrypt
at wirespeed with MACSec at 10Gb/s with no
performance degradation. With this capability,
the station network can become an integral
element of rail operator’s zero-trust multi-layer
defence framework.
Many rail operators are evaluating the use
of private 3GPP-based LTE/5G wireless network
for automatic train control and operations.
The wireless network requires precise time-of‑day
synchronisation beyond the capability of the
commonly used Network Time Protocol (NTP).
The blueprint supports IEEE 1588 PTP (Precision
Timing Protocol) designed for such use case. As the
network coverage can expand beyond the track to
stations for future rail innovations, the blueprint can
readily become an extension of the synchronisation
distribution network.
With its rich networking capabilities, the Nokia
digital station blueprint can continue to evolve and
play an integral role in the digital rail journey.
globalrailwayreview.com
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@GlobalRailway
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@GlobalRailway
23