Even a tiny piece of the buildout of the Chinese railway system, which will see hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, represents a windfall for a vendor. IBM, which provides its asset management software to China’s rail networks, moved to take its piece with the launch of its Global Rail Innovation Center on Thursday in Beijing. IBM says the center’s goal is to bring together experts from all over the globe to share best practices and design smarter, faster and more efficient rail systems for passengers and freight.

The opening of IBM’s new R&D center for rail tech comes less than two months after Big Blue announced a deal for the state-owned rail operator in China’s Guangzhou city to use its asset management platform as part of a massive $176 billion expansion expected to double passenger capacity, to 4 million per day. IBM’s smarter railway system will use a network of sensors to feed data into management systems, such as IBM’s Maximo software, to react to information in real time.
China plans to leverage the recent advances in information technology to build a “smart rail” system for a relatively low cost (it’ll be leagues beyond U.S. trains, though that’s not too difficult). The Ministry of Railway’s chief engineer, He Wuhua, told the audience at the launch event that China wants the “digital railway” to serve as the core of its transportation future. The new center’s director, Keith Dierkx, said it will use video surveillance, RFID tags, GPS, smart cards and advanced software to collect huge amounts of data on train and passenger movements.
Dierkx said IT could also improve customer service. For example, he said he hopes customers will be able to plan their travels and book tickets using only their phones (any startups with good scheduling mobile apps out there?). IBM is also working with Motorola, Railinc, the California High Speed Rail Authority, RMI, Saber, MIT and Beijing’s own Tsinghua University for its new smart rail center; company reps told us they will be naming more members soon.
Meanwhile, back home, President Obama’s most recent budget included $13 billion aimed at high-speed rail, which states will start to bid on later this month. Between Joe “Amtrak” Biden spearheading the White House’s railroad plans and China’s plan to spend to spend $182 billion on its rails, investment in high-speed rail, in the U.S. and abroad, looks to be finally getting back on track.
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