Railway services represent the entire range of activities necessary to maintaining the railway assets in good operation conditions or to extending the life cycle of these assets. There are different types of services ranging from maintenance to the modernisation of rolling stock, infrastructure of signalling equipment up to supplying spares, repairs or support granted to operation activities, or even operation services depending on the contract type.
Not long ago, maintenance services were carried out by state-owned companies with fully integrated activities, but over the last years these types of services have become easier to access by private companies as well.
French giant Alstom is among the private companies which has been dealing with maintenance services, among others, by over 25 years with a portfolio of around 120 maintenance and modernisation projects, either to infrastructure or rolling stock (manufactured by Alstom or by other companies). Maintenance projects, apart from those including delivery of urban rolling stock or for high-speed railway traffic, are carried out in different parts of the world from North America or Latin America, Middle East, Asia-Pacific region, South Africa, the Community of Independent States and Europe of course.
The Alstom Transport market amounts to over EUR 100 Billion worldwide. “The company has 90 production units in 60 countries, important partnerships and over 200 customers. In Eastern Europe, Poland and Romania represent two major poles for the the development of the transport activity; in the former, Alstom has a production unit, while in Romania the company provides maintenance services for Bucharest Metro and develops projects on the modernisation of railway infrastructure section on Corridor IV”, declared Andreas Knitter, Senior Vice President Alstom Transport for Europe.
The maintenance of infrastructure and rolling stock represent 37% of the market of accessible services and is one of the services with high growth share, around 3.1% annually until 2017. From the institutional point of view, the maintenance services market will benefit from the adoption of the Fourth Railway Package which insists on the liberalisation of the railway passenger transport markets. This will increase competition on the maintenance services market, while traditional transport operators or new entrants will look for the most efficient maintenance solutions, especially on the Western Europe market.
The countries of the Scandinavian Peninsula are a good example of opened transport markets and maintenance outsourcing.
At the beginning of the month, Alstom Transport presented the railway services it provides in Sweden, both maintenance and rolling stock delivery, focusing on the services provided for Stockholm.
“In the European market, after Oslo (Norway), Stockholm is the most developed city regarding the quality of urban and regional transport services”, said Henrik Anderberg, Managing Director of Alstom Transport Nordics.
The French company sold 586 trains in the Nordic Countries, 247 of which Coradia Nordic trains, 42 Coradia Duplex and 7 Arlanda Express trains only in Sweden. In these countries, Alstom provides maintenance services in eight depots, as well as maintenance services for 137 commuters trains in Stockholm. Also, the trains manufactured by Alstom are operated by Norrtåg, Västtrafik, Östgötatrafiken and Skånetrafiken.
2011 marked the beginning of the maintenance services provided by Alstom to the 137 commuters trains in Bro, Södertälje and Älvsjö depots.
The Bro depot was built especially for the maintenance of the X60 – Coradia Nordic trains. They enable the daily transport of 300,000 passengers which commute to and from Stockholm. In 2011-2014, the customers’ satisfaction level increased by 15% from 61% to 76% in just three years. Also, for 2013-2014, the punctuality of trains increased from 44% to 63%.
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