EVA+ cloud train data analytics platform

Northern Trains operates one of the largest networks in England. In July 2019 Northern Trains added 101 CAF regional passenger trains from the Civity family to their fleets.

Hasler Rail AG is part of the Secheron Hasler group, we are market leader and supplier of on-board electronics. HaslerRail TELOC© 3000 event recorders are on-board on the CAF Civity trainsets operated by Northern Trains. The TELOC© 3000 automatically transfers recorded data to HaslerRail’s EVA+ web-based platform over a secured mobile communication network. The TELOC© 3000 transfers data collected from over 500 digital channels and several dozens of analog ones, ranging from the speed and distance to the use of the brakes and the emergency brake systems, and wheel sleep and slide protection system activation, and more.

Traditionally, the OTDR data is used post-incident, for root-cause analysis. Usually, engineers have to go to the train manually to fetch the data to be analysed. In some minor incident cases, if the investigation is performed at a later point in time, the data describing the incident might even be missing[1].

“The speed at which the OTDR data is available has proved essential when carrying out initial investigations into safety of the line incidents and understanding what has taken place.” – recounts one of the engineers, involved into the investigation process, using EVA+.

There is more to it than merely remote access over the internet to OTDR data, which keeps engineers away from the track and train. Taking advantage of the virtually unlimited cloud computing resources, EVA+ goes far and beyond to only providing the means and the data to support incident investigations. With EVA+, train operators such as Northern Trains identify driving techniques and trends looking to improve. Northern Trains employs over 400 drivers and over 50 driver managers. One driver manager shared from personal experience on using the EVA+ system:

“Recently we have used the system to identify how long drivers would normally take to cancel an AWS warning. This can highlight if a driver is cancelling in autopilot mode (very short time between horn and cancellation pointing to driver hovering over cancellation button).

We can now use the system remotely which is completely different to any other data recording system we use. Our other older systems mean that the manager has to find the unit and physically download the data and then upload to a laptop before any data can be looked at. This can mean huge delays to getting that data as the trains maybe in locations far from the area that the manager is working. EVA+ has allowed immediate access to OTDR information in readily available user friendly format. This is an essential cornerstone of Northern’s driver competency process. Event analysis gives us the opportunity to identify trends and specific events across all Hasler equipped fleets.”

In the not so distant future, EVA+ will learn by itself from any incident that ever happened, and will automatically detect incident leading indicators to alert the responsible people on time.

[1] See the Report published by Rail Accident Investigation Branch in June 2016, https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/passenger-accident-at-hayes-harlington-station