Trapeze Rail’s DAS solution makes the news in France

Trapeze Rail’s Driving Advice System (DAS) has been in the news in France, where the Minister for Transport, Clément Beaune, praised its effectiveness in delivering optimal sustainability and operational outcomes for Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF).

Mr Beaune highlighted the energy savings and decarbonisation benefits delivered by Trapeze’s DAS solution. The state rail operator SNCF relies upon DAS to maximise the efficiency of its signature high-speed service, the TGV.

SNCF uses approximately 7TWh of electricity in France every year, equating to three per cent of all national energy consumption.

By installing DAS on its TGV trains, SNCF achieves annual energy consumption efficiencies of up to 10 per cent. This saves millions of euros in electricity costs and makes a significant contribution to its decarbonisation targets.

“Highly innovative system”

Mr Beaune addressed French media about the government’s ‘Turn it down, turn it off, postpone it’ campaign, which aims to reduce national energy consumption. He explained that train services would be unaffected because of rail’s vital role in providing sustainable public transport.

“The restraint plan… does not include cancelling trains, reducing the public transport offer, slowing down our metros, trains or buses,” Mr Beaune said. “This would be paradoxical because we are committed to the long term.

“The ecological transition means more trains, more public transport, more green transport, and they are part of this strategy.’’

Referring specifically to the DAS solution, the Minister for Transport continued: ‘’I will be going to Montparnasse to see the highly innovative system that SNCF and RATP have put in place for what we call eco-driving.

“With peaks and troughs of speed, you can still reduce energy consumption. Eco-driving is the solution, saving energy at the same average speed,” he said.

“I am not asking SNCF and RATP to run trains more slowly because, as I said, we cannot make the ecological transition without rail.”

A proven solution

Energy use contributes up to fifty per cent of a locomotive’s lifetime operating costs and can vary significantly between drivers. DAS is a proven solution that resolves this operational inefficiency.

Train drivers receive real-time driving advice through an onboard computer, helping them to achieve timetable compliance and energy efficiency by coasting or accelerating according to track geometry and speed profile, train characteristics and train position.

From a rail management perspective, DAS allows operators to analyse large datasets and produce reports quickly, so the business benefits from actionable driver efficiency and energy use insights in real time.

The Trapeze DAS solution has been installed worldwide on more than 8,000 train and driver applications across 80,000 km of track in 10 nations and four continents. DAS consistently delivers 10-12 per cent reductions in energy consumption when deployed on rail networks.

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