TheSmarterCity is filled with cars, subways, buses, trains and ferries,
moving people and goods all over town.
Integrating these different modes of transportation
into a smart system is key to keeping the city moving.
But what about the movement between cities?
Virtually every tangible good – food, clothing, medicine, fuel, and electronics –
has been transported into your world from somewhere else.
It all involves getting up and going someplace.
Watch the videoFor the better part of the past two hundred years,
the world's railway systems stood as symbols of progress and modernity.
Today, the planet's rail lines carry 10 billion tons of freight and 21 billion people.
And that demand is a good thing.
Rail is two to five times more energy efficient
than road or air transportation.
And one freight train can replace 280 trucks,
reducing fuel use, congestion and emissions.
But problems like unprecedented demand, delays, congestion,
and outmoded ticketing systems –
all parts of an aging infrastructure – won't support the
transportation needs of a smarter planet.
Fortunately, intelligence is being infused
into the world's existing rail infrastructures,
connecting them, making them smarter.
By marrying digital technology with physical infrastructure,
we can collect and analyze historic and real-time data
about how our railways are used.
We can create the kind of rail systems people could only
dream of 200 years ago.
Watch the videoThe rail systems connecting TheSmarterCity to the rest
of the world had two main problems:
they were either over-utilized or under-utilized.
The challenge is accurately predicting demand
and having the right number of locomotives
and cars in the right place at the right time.
But how do you do that in a system encompassing thousands
of trains and millions of people?
A smarter rail system keeps track of how many people get on each train
at each time of day at each station
– under varying weather and commuting conditions – every day of the week.
It gets that information from sensors on vehicles and buildings,
video monitoring, GPS data, mobile device signals,
satellite images, reservation systems, smart fare cards and more.
And it uses that information to build dynamic timetables
that can be adjusted in real time.
Watch the videoIn a smarter transportation system,
travelers and freight customers are empowered with information
and tools to determine for themselves the best way
to move from origin to destination, across all modes of transportation,
with due consideration to cost, time,
convenience and environmental impact.
Clark is catching the train for TheSmarterCity tomorrow
to meet with potential investors.
A message on his PDA confirms his 8am departure.
Off to bed now...
Rise and shine, Clark.
On the road to the station, his GPS Locator reports traffic ahead.
He can keep the course and risk a serious delay
or he can take a slightly longer, alternate route.
Clark picks the new path
and is automatically booked on the next train.
Easy Pass makes parking hassle-free.
All aboard.
En route, Clark checks out his options for navigating the city.
Rental car? Comfortable, but complicated.
Taxi? Convenient, but expensive.
Subway? Cheap AND convenient.
Welcome to The Smarter City.
Lunchtime! His phone offers a couple suggestions.
He could sit down at his favorite restaurant
or he could grab a sandwich to-go and
have an extra moment to prepare.
The idea is a hit. Nice work, Clark.
But the meeting went so well, it ran late.
Clark weighs his options.
He can either rush to catch the last train home or
he can check into a nearby hotel for the night.
A request is sent to the concierge, who books Clark a room
and sends the room-service menu to his PDA.
Clark confirms his reservation for the train,
leaving bright and early tomorrow morning.
Watch the videoRail companies can own thousands of miles of track,
hundreds of thousands of cars, countless signals and switches
– all servicing millions of travelers.
New investments are not made lightly.
Now managers can get the most out of every train,
track, switch, signal and station.
And more effectively manage every engineer,
maintenance person and railway worker in the system.
This helps reduce costs, carbon emissions,
fuel consumption, downtime and delays.
Smarter train systems are built by embedding a digital infrastructure
into the existing physical infrastructure.
By putting sensors on everything that moves (and some things that don't)
managers can monitor the health of the system
and make intelligent decisions about what changes to make in real time.
Watch the videoRail already is a safe and secure mode of transportation.
How can we make it safer?
There's no way you can station enough human beings
to watch over every asset in a train system.
We can make our railways safer by using sensors to
understand in real time the location, condition and availability
of everything in the system.
Combine the sensing technologies with robust analytical tools
that can sift through it all, and managers can
not only sense disruptions but may even predict them
and prevent them from happening in the first place.
To build a smarter rail system:
Collect data about the condition, location,
status and purpose of everything in the system.
Use analytics to make better decisions faster
about how to deploy these resources.
This will help you to build rail systems that are safer,
more efficient, greener, traveler-focused, smarter.
Watch the video