photo: The Diplomat/SAR and CAF have signed a contract worth EUR 200 million in total
Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) has signed a contract for train maintenance that CAF has supplied to the country over the past five years. The total value of the contract is EUR 200 million.
Nowadays, these trains connect the capital Riyadh with Qurayyat on the Jordanian border, and Riyadh with Dammam. The rail network is more than 1,700 km long and, in addition to the cities mentioned above, also connects the districts of Hail, Al-Qassim and Al-Hofuf.
In addition, the contract provides for a joint engineering department establishing. It is known as the Engineering Excellence Center. Its purpose will be training Saudi Arabian railroad employees in basic operating skills for train maintenance and adapting the Saudi company's equipment for overhauling major unit systems, which the signed contract also provides for. The adaptation of the equipment means replacing the rolling stock, equipping special areas for the repair of engines and pneumatic components, and directly adapting the workshops for the bogies and axles maintenance.
In addition, CAF has been working together with SAR for several years on a project to introduce Digital Hub Centre in the Gulf region as a benchmark centre for train digitalization. It is needed for developing digital systems and tools for the rail company's train fleet. The project will be based on CAF's LeadMind platform, which allows creating a new generation of connected trains and provides more competitive services for operators. To this end, data will be collected using remote diagnostics of units, followed by statistical analysis of the resulting data flows. It is necessary to optimize maintenance and operation strategies, which thus will help improve the performance of rolling stock in terms of reliability and availability of trains and their life cycle costs.
Among other things, CAF will participate in the creation and development of strategic agreements with local universities and technical centres to conduct research and improve the rail transport competence in the region.
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