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SIEMENS Mobility South Africa

Siemens Mobility South Africa, Ready to Make Passenger Rail World Class

There are urgent challenges that need to be addressed to deliver a safe, reliable and predictable rail service to the commuters of South Africa. The first pressing issue, being theft and vandalism. The second is the most critical, restoring service to what should be a world-class standard. Over the lockdown period, the extent of vandalism of stations and railway infrastructure, including theft of critical operational components has had enormous ramifications for the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) and of course the many commuters who rely on the service daily.

PRASA’s modernisation programme not only includes the modernisation of their signalling infrastructure nationally but also several station upgrades and depot upgrades to accommodate the new trains currently being delivered. Whilst “bricks and mortar” will provide the physical infrastructure, the strength of a railway lies in the technology that underpins the physical infrastructure. This is the aspect that moves it beyond a simple platform to a world-class, safe, reliable and predictable railway service for the commuters of South Africa.

“The modernisation programme is not a brick-and-mortar business, that is just an aspect of it. The part that we focus on is electrification, automation and digitalisation of a world standard. That is what we bring to the industry. This is what we can deliver for PRASA right now,” says Kevin Pillay, CEO of Siemens Mobility South Africa.

Siemens Mobility South Africa is currently executing the Gauteng resignalling project for PRASA, having to date completed and commissioned 66 out of 89 stations. In executing this project Siemens has invested significantly in meeting and exceeding the local content requirements of the project, above 65%. The local manufacturing facility in North Riding, Gauteng, is home to Africa’s first Interlocking Testing Facility (ITF) as well as the manufacturing and assembly hub.

“The modernisation programme is not a brick-and-mortar business, that is just an aspect of it. The part that we focus on is electrification, automation and digitalisation of a world standard. That is what we bring to the industry. This is what we can deliver for PRASA right now.”

Kevin Pillay, CEO,
Siemens Mobility South Africa
Gasbia Michael, the Production Manager for Siemens Mobility South Africa, explains; “Our facility is equipped to accommodate all the processes, including LED signal assembly, assembly and testing of interlockings, power supplies and communications systems. We have a fully-fledged team that is multi-skilled, that can work on every process. Through adopting the principles of lean manufacturing, we have reduced the time spent on assembling LED signals from 50 a week, to 150 a week. We have also reduced the time spent on station assembly from 35 days to 14 days per person and that is an amazing achievement. By just implementing the lean management principles, we can accommodate the customers’ needs as and when they require.”

“What really underpins our local facility is how it positions us. We are ready and able to provide support and solutions to our customers like PRASA, Transnet, Gautrain and even private rail sidings, right now,” notes Pillay.

Over the years Siemens Mobility South Africa has invested heavily in the development of their people, to ensure that together with their people and solutions that they remain at the forefront of executing railway projects on the African continent.

“From a human resources point of view, we have invested a lot in our people locally in South Africa. From our design team, designing all the book of circuits that we need for the different projects, to our data engineering team which executes all the data engineering for the railway stations, to our telecoms team. And, finally, the guys doing the testing in the factory and those that are doing the testing on-site, during site acceptance testing.

“What really underpins our local facility is how it positions us. We are ready and able to provide support and solutions to our customers like PRASA, Transnet, Gautrain and even private rail sidings, right now,” notes Pillay.

Over the years Siemens Mobility South Africa has invested heavily in the development of their people, to ensure that together with their people and solutions that they remain at the forefront of executing railway projects on the African continent.

“From a human resources point of view, we have invested a lot in our people locally in South Africa. From our design team, designing all the book of circuits that we need for the different projects, to our data engineering team which executes all the data engineering for the railway stations, to our telecoms team. And, finally, the guys doing the testing in the factory and those that are doing the testing on-site, during site acceptance testing.

“We have a wealth of knowledge within the organisation. People that are committed to doing work efficiently and timeously to the accurate nature that is required. This has enabled us to deliver projects that are reliable, available, maintainable and ultimately safe.”

Thomas Mashishi, Project Execution Manager,
Siemens Mobility South Africa

“We have a wealth of knowledge within the organisation. People that are committed to doing work efficiently and timeously to the accurate nature that is required. This has enabled us to deliver projects that are reliable, available, maintainable and ultimately safe,” says Thomas Mashishi, Project Execution Manager for Siemens Mobility South Africa.

Thomas further explains that; other tools have been innovated as part of the project execution, including a System Diagnostic Tool that assists the team in being able to remotely diagnose stations when there might be a problem.

“With our experience and knowledge, we would be able to accelerate a schedule, to ensure that we get PRASA’s signalling system back on track and that we can move the trains safely.”

Pieter de Waal, Head of Project Execution,
Siemens Mobility South Africa

Pieter de Waal, Head of Project Execution for Siemens Mobility South Africa, explains that the company has extensive experience in rolling out safe, reliable and predictable railway solutions, and is ready to immediately support PRASA. “With our experience and knowledge, we would be able to accelerate a schedule, to ensure that we get PRASA’s signalling system back on track and that we can move the trains safely.”

The railway sector is the backbone to the economy and features prominently in South Africa’s post-covid-19, Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) for both freight and passenger services.

“It is so important right now, even in these times of COVID, that we continue to plan for the future. That operators put in place future-orientated solutions to meet the demands of their freight customers and commuters. Safety, reliability and predictability is the goal for any operator and we at Siemens Mobility South Africa are here to support our customers in achieving and exceeding these goals, today,” concludes Pillay.