Rail system and rolling stock company Alstom has selected multinational technology firm GMV to supply the automatic vehicle location system (AVLS) for the AlUla Experiential Tramway project in Saudi Arabia.
The light rail system, inspired by the Hijaz railway, will connect AlUla’s five districts and involve 20 of Alstom’s CITADIS trains, which will run along a 22.4 km line with 17 stations.
GMV will implement its SAE-R solution on all of the system’s trains, to provide its advanced capabilities for rail traffic operation and management.
The SAE-R solution will be integrated with a wide range of external systems, including those located at the control centre (planning system, passenger information at tram stops, integrated operation and control/smart city system, etc).
It will also be installed on train control and management systems, systems for passenger information and route requests, automatic train protection, traction power supply, and passenger counting.
This multi-application computer-aided dispatch/automatic vehicle location platform gives rail operators the ability to perform integrated transportation management.
This includes planning of services, monitoring and managing fleets in real time, providing passenger information, and using recorded data for statistical purposes.
The onboard units installed on the 20 trains running on the AlUla Experiential Tramway are designed and manufactured by GMV, including a touchscreen human-machine interface for the driver.
GMV stated that the solution is also supplemented by installation of a control centre ecosystem at the local operation points, with workstations that will give a transportation network operating company the ability to monitor and analyse all operations.
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