Wabtec Corporation recently opened its first-ever European Transit Performance Optimization Center (TPOC), based in Derby, UK, according to Businesswire.
“We are thrilled to open this new center, which will provide next-generation service solutions for our customers in Europe,” Garry Mowbray, Wabtec vice president of regional services, told Businesswire. “The combination of our inherent experience in global asset management, access to monitoring technology, analysis platforms and maintenance capabilities provide a winning combination for our customers.”
The purpose of the new center is to assist transit sector customers with operational improvements and service cost reductions. The establishment will also minimize loss of productivity with the use of monitoring and analytics.
Serving as the company's latest global analytics and condition monitoring efforts, the new establishment will add onto the 10 million pieces of health- and transit-related data monitored by technicians based throughout Wabtec's global optimization centers, located in the U.S., Brazil and Kazakhstan.
The centers, offering 24-7 support, also oversee more than 18,000 assets, such as freight locomotives, Marine Engines and OHV Systems.
“This is a welcome investment from Wabtec, and we look forward to the benefits that the new TPOC in Derby will bring to the industry,” Ben Ackroyd, COO at Porterbrook, told Businesswire. “Better performance controls and analysis will help Wabtec and asset owners, such as Porterbrook, jointly provide more dependable whole-life asset management capabilities to passenger and freight operators. It will drive improved and more consistent performance and give us the opportunity to further leverage technology in our mission to deliver a safe, reliable and sustainable railway.”
Various European customers have already chosen Wabtec’s UK TPOC as their selected UK rail business, the first of which is Porterbrook Leasing. According to Businesswire, the technology detects "potential train/sub system failures to be predicted before they occur," and helps scheduled maintenance to avoid passenger or train disruptions.