GMV technology to run Manila’s local train network in the Philippines

The technology multinational GMV has recently won a contract from Philippines National Railways (PNR) to set up South-East Asia’s first ever railway fleet management system. The Philippines’ public rail operator has taken up the system for running Manila’s local commuter trains, taking in the whole metropolitan area and later to be extended to the Island of Luzon. The project, to be set up by October 2020, will provide PNR with an all-in railway-fleet operation, management and planning system.

GMV’s inhouse railway fleet management system, SAE-r^®, will keep all users permanently informed of the position and state of the train fleet and any operation incidents that might crop up. It will control the whole railway operation in real time; this includes all the following: monitoring of train activity and driver behavior, performing all regulation activities to ensure on-time running, supplying passenger information (bus-stop and on-train panels), managing communications between trains and the control center and supervising the rest of the onboard systems (radio equipment, ticketing equipment, the train’s own equipment, etc). This complete real-time operation, control and management system is rounded out by an advanced tool for a thoroughgoing after-the-event analysis of fleet running, punctuality and any operational events.

This project, of great strategic importance for PNR, will ensure a substantial improvement in the control of this railway service with a monthly ridership of over 100,000 in the metropolitan area of Manila.

The contract won by GMV falls within PNR’s ongoing modernization program, which includes the purchase of new trains and setting up new trackside infrastructure. GMV’s SAE-r^® railway fleet-management system will initially be set up in 45 driver cabs with onboard computer, screen and microphone for audio-text communication with the control center and receipt of real-time operation-regulation orders and notifications to deal with any unforeseen running events that might crop up: planning changes, allocation of resources to the various services, etc.

Although this represents GMV’s first ever railway project in South-East Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines), the company has already become a worldwide benchmark supplier of railway fleet-management systems. GMV’s inhouse SAE-r^® has now been taken up by national operators like RENFE (freight and passenger) and urban railway infrastructure operators like Servicios Ferroviarios de Mallorca or Tranvía de Zaragoza, plus rolling-stock companies like CAF. Further afield, GMV boasts clients like Alstom in France, Sydney Light Rail in Australia, the tramways of Warsaw, Gdansk and Torun in Poland, ONCF in Morocco and Kaohsiung Light Rail System in Taiwan.