Rail freight must evolve faster than ever to remain competitive and attract new stakeholders. At Wabtec, our mission is clear: to transform freight digitization from concept to reality—making it a true lever for performance and efficiency.

To achieve this, we’ve launched a two-pronged strategy:

To drive this transformation, Wabtec has partnered with Intermodal Telematics (IMT), a Dutch leader in rail telematics.

This collaboration merges IMT’s advanced digital technology with Wabtec’s scale and expertise in braking and safety systems, delivering smarter, connected freight solutions across Europe.

Discover real-world testimonials in the following pages...

reading!

Happy

The transformative potential of telematics drove Wabtec to join forces with IMT, bringing smart technology to Wabtec customers around the world. As the enabler for Wabtec’s comprehensive digital freight wagon offer, telematics opens the way for advanced monitoring and automation.

Before telematics, knowing where a freight car was at any given time was a matter of guesswork. Today, you can simply glance at Wabtec’s telematics app to know where all your assets are. At the heart of Wabtec’s telematics solutions is the bridge.It uses GPS functionality to communicate the near real-time location of rail assets and geofencing to trigger a notification when a load arrives at its intended location.

These new capabilities are nothing less than revolutionary for the industry. Telematics equipment helps customers turn hidden data into actionable information. They can track brake health data to improve maintenance and ensure reliability and safety. Temperature and pressure monitoring ensure optimal product quality by preventing cargo spoilage.

Depending on the sensors installed on the railcar, it also sends data for parameters like temperature, pressure and the status of brakes and doors. It also makes it possible to track mileage and analyze journeys.

At the center of every Wabtec telematics system is the bridge, which connects to our secure servers via satellites and cellular networks to send near real-time location

Data and updated sensor data every 10 minutes when moving (or every 12 hours when idle).

“Wabtec’s telematics solutions contribute to both customer satisfaction and operational reliability.”

VTG oversees Europe’s largest owned fleet of freight wagons. It operates many different types of railcars, including tank wagons, intermodal wagons and standard freight wagons. VTG’s customers work in industries ranging from petrochemicals to automotive and agriculture.

Körfez Ulaştırma A.Ş. is the first private railway operator in Türkiye. Its main customers are primarily in the oil industry, though it is expanding into container transportation. As the ECM for the wagons in its fleet, Körfez Ulaştırma manages all maintenance and repair processes in its own workshops, while also providing wagon and wheelset maintenance and repair services to external customers.

Monitoring augments telematic sensor capabilities by running collected data through a powerful algorithm. This data then appears in a customizable analytics dashboard providing fleet operation insights at your fingertips. Access to this vital information boosts safety, avoids unscheduled downtime and reduces maintenance needs.

While many monitoring functionalities are already available, still others are currently in a proof-of-concept phase. In 2023, French national operator RLE, via subsidiary Hexafret (see opposite), and regional operator RDT13 launched the MONITOR Project in partnership with Wabtec.

It also enables capabilities like predictive maintenance. Monitoring enables us to detect failures before they occur on wheelsets, brakes and bearings. These failures are not only costly to fix, they idle trains, delaying merchandise from reaching its destination. Pre-fault detection enables owners to schedule maintenance at a convenient time and place, reducing downtime.

As the leading rail freight operator in France, with around 2,800 wagon trips every day, Hexafret, a subsidiary of Rail Logistics Europe (the rail freight holding of SNCF Group), is familiar with the daily challenges of operators to ensure efficiency, competitiveness and operational safety.

“Wabtec is a major supplier of freight wagon equipment, and a large part of our wagon fleet has Wabtec braking systems. It is therefore only natural that we asked Wabtec to accompany us in our digital transformation.”

Ermewa is a leader in freight wagon rental in Europe, with over 50,000 wagons in its fleet. The company’s long-term vision for digitalizing rail freight is a pragmatic journey in which freight wagons are entirely integrated with sensors over the next 20 years.

The rail industry is at a pivotal point in its security journey. In recent years, certain European countries have reported attempts to hack rail networks.

20%

Wabtec Corporation is a global rail technology leader. Drawing on 150 years of experience in the rail industry, we are a leading provider of equipment, systems, digital solutions and value-added services for freight and transit rail.

Wabtec offers the world’s most comprehensive and competitive locomotive portfolio and an unmatched offering of freight car components and services.

With operations in over 50 countries, freight rail operators across continents trust Wabtec to provide solutions to keep their trains operating safely and reliably.

Europe and Türkiye:

3, rue du 19 Mars 1962

92230 Gennevilliers CEDEX France

freighteurope.wtv@wabtec.com

30 Isabella Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15212 - USA

Phone: 412.825.1000 / Fax: 412.825.1019

Other regions:

Rail freight must evolve faster than ever to remain competitive and attract new stakeholders.