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16 Feb 2026, by Informa Insights
Running a heavy haul operation is an unbroken chain of decisions: which locomotives to assign to priority trains, which units are healthy for a given territory, what to do enroute when an alert or red flag appears, and which assets should be shopped now to prevent a mission impacting failure.
The quality and consistency of those decisions directly impact on time performance, fleet availability and operating cost. And when data and analytics are thrown in, operators can unlock material gains in these areas.
Glenn Shaffer of Wabtec says the need for data in this space is growing with Australia’s heavy haul rail networks expected to move more tonnage, with less headroom for delay and cost overrun.
He says the best decisions – and resulting rail performance – come when you effectively merge real-time data, expert knowledge, operational decisioning, and continuous learning.
The data needed comes from all parts of the rail ecosystem. Starting with the locomotive which contains many microprocessors and hundreds of sensors (both physical and virtual).
These give insight into the equipment’s health, operator performance, and locomotive external interfaces (e.g. rail, weather, terrain).
Valuable data for the train also comes from wayside equipment that senses the locomotive and railcar health as a train pass.
The wayside systems provide vibration, thermal, acoustic, and vision insights and alerts.
In addition, railcars can be equipped with sensors and communication systems to sense rail car status (e.g. load level, brake and wheel health, etc.).
All these sources provide valuable insights into the status and health of the RR’s assets.
Wabtec’s locomotives equipped with Expert on Alert (EOA), Wayside Solutions (KinetiX) and Railcar Telemetry solutions enable the data for optimum rail performance.
Converting this data into valuable information to improve RR operations requires a knowledge system. The system is comprised of analytical tools and humans.
The analytical tools will be a combination of deterministic rules, digital twins, and AI.
To achieve the high accuracy needed to truly optimise operations, experts are needed to analyse outliers, determine new failure mechanisms, and continuously improve the knowledge system.
Wabtec utilizes its Global Performance Optimisation Center (GPOC) as the knowledge system for 18,000 locomotives running around the world.
Every minute of the year (7x24x365) the system processes 10,000,000 data messages each day, utilizes expert domain analytics, and a team of veteran troubleshooters to provide RR’s with insights to operate at the highest levels.
For over 25 years, Wabtec has centralized the data from the entire locomotive fleet (all ages and operating conditions) and continuously linked the data (from locomotives, operators, wayside, and railcars), the analytics, the shop actions, and the resulting locomotive performance to enable the train ecosystem optimization.
Without high accuracy solutions, RR performance will be negatively affected from excessively shopping of healthy locomotives, incorrect repair and repeat failures, and unnecessary train delays due to undetected failures.
Lastly, the data and insights need to create actions in the operations to achieve peak performance.
Integrating this information with each of the RR’s various departments and operating systems is required.
Wabtec offers several solutions for the RRs to use directly, or via integration with the RR’s existing IT solutions.
For power planners and train dispatchers, Power Advisor gives insights into overall locomotive health.
Once a train is in operation, Train Analysis Tool enables the network support team and the locomotive crew to quickly resolve many issues associated with locomotive set-up issues, undesired emergencies, and train line failures.
Expert on Alert, Smart Shop and eServices are provided to optimize shop operations.
These tools provide expert work scopes (both scheduled and unscheduled), as well as material and labour management, to minimize the time and cost of locomotive maintenance.
With the Wabtec solutions, scheduled maintenance work scopes are based on the locomotive’s performance prior to arrival.
If the unit is performing well, the work scope is reduced to the minimal required actions.
If additional work is needed due to a failure of locomotive equipment, the shop receives advance warning of the issue (with material and labour insights) and the work scope is adjusted accordingly.
If the repair is simple, like replacing a sensor or control card, the shop is notified so parts and labour can be waiting for the locomotive during a scheduled servicing event (fueling) – thus eliminating a multi-day shopping and avoiding excessive labour applied.
Real time data, expert knowledge, and integrated solutions enable RR’s to improve haulage and minimize cost in their challenging, dynamic rail environment.
The proven Wabtec solutions provide high quality, timely, and consistent outputs that integrate with RR operations – enabling more tonnage movement at lower cost.
Glenn Shaffer, Group Vice President of Technology for Wabtec’s Service Team, will share more on this at the Heavy Haul Rail Conference.
This year’s event will be held 22-23 April 2026 at the Crown Perth.
Learn more and register your tickets here.
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