Our event has kicked off at Bane Nor’s Campus Nyland, just outside Oslo.

One of the reasons for the event is today the two companies are celebrating the first 100 days of operating a digital railway, the Gjøvik line. Here’s why Norwegian railways are investing in digitalization.

Here are the implications and impacts.

17:00.

The presentations and tour have been fascinating. I can’t cover it all right now but I will add more detail at the end of the trip. Bane Nor have 5000 staff to train on the new digital systems so they’ve built this bespoke training centre in which to do it, protected from the elements.

Whilst we were at the centre we were given a world first. Bane Nor and Siemens have developed a system for inspecting switches. Currently, this work is done manually. It takes one person six hours to inspect a simple set of points, taking measurements manually, then writing them down before they can be recorded digitally. There’s significant room for error. Now they’ve developed a lightweight machine which can do the same job in less than one hour. Meet ‘Railchap’.

It’s a nippy little thing that can take all the measurements previously done manually in just two passes. When you have 3,000 sets of switches that need to be inspected twice a year, that’s a considerable saving.

Now we’re back at the hotel, having time to smarten up before going out for dinner. Tomorrow we take a trip on the 67 km Gjøvik line – the first to have digital signalling installed.

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