Post by Oliver von Sperber 🛤️

🚄 Too much rail tech is still parked in the siding. It’s time to get it running on the main line. How do we bring fast-moving IoT, AI and data technologies into a railway system shaped by 160 years of infrastructure, regulation and operational complexity? This was one of the key questions we discussed at this year’s Rise of IoT, AI & Data in Rail. ✅ Rail operates in a highly complex environment: infrastructure assets can be up to 160 years old, while the rulebooks run into tens of thousands of pages. Safety and quality standards are essential but they also need to evolve so they enable, rather than slow down, much-needed innovation in IoT, AI and data. This was strongly highlighted by Adam Checkley and Armin Günter in their keynotes. ✅ Data collection and analytics can reduce maintenance costs by 10–15% and help prevent more than 60% of infrastructure defects. Central platforms from companies such as infraView GmbH, Railnova, Siemens Mobility, VisioStack Inc., voestalpine Railway Systems and Vossloh play a key role in making this data usable, predicting failures before they happen and avoiding service-affecting incidents. Third-party sensors are becoming an important part of this ecosystem. Thank you Franziska Schneditz-Bolfras, Gerhard Paal, Meike van t Hoen, Simon Giovanazzi, Stefan Distlberger and Zachary G. Garner for the valuable insights. ✅ A key challenge remains: how do we move from pilot projects to real scaling? It takes a strong internal sponsor, a clear operational need and a solid business case for both the railway company and the technology provider. It was a pleasure to attend The Rise of IoT, AI & Data in Rail again this year together with Uwe Huebler. The congress has become one of the most important international industry gatherings in this field. Thank you to Ben Holliday and the entire Rotaia Media team for the excellent organisation and a special shout-out to Dan MacGregor for moderating the event. And thank you to Frédéric Comtet for presenting the use case with Atos, AXO and Deutsche Bahn during your keynote. 🌱 🚆