Banedanmark chooses Fugro’s RILA system to survey the Danish rail network

Banedanmark manages Denmark's public railway infrastructure and is responsible for maintenance, traffic control and development of most of the Danish railway network, covering over 3000 km of tracks. Their priority is to keep the railway efficient, safe and on time, which requires accurate data of the track and any objects in the rail corridor.

Fugro’s unique RILA train-borne survey technology will be used to simultaneously acquire lidar data and imagery of the track and surrounding environment to create a highly accurate, information-rich model of Denmark’s railway infrastructure. This so-called ‘digital twin’ will enable Banedanmark to detect any objects in conflict with their railway infrastructure clearance profile and perform clearance gauge mapping, essential for the safe operation of the network.

Jeroen Huiskamp, Global Director of Rail at Fugro, said: “This is the first time that Banedanmark has used train-borne lidar technology on large extents of the network and we are proud that they have chosen our RILA solution. The operational flexibility, improved safety levels, highly accurate data and attractive costing set it apart from other survey methods. “

Previously, Banedanmark network infrastructure surveys used traditional terrestrial methods so acquiring lidar data via a mobile platform will dramatically reduce the need for on-track surveyors and provide accelerated data capture.

Charlotte Lomholt, Project manager at Banedanmark, said: “We look forward to an ongoing cooperation with Fugro to survey the Danish rail network. With 190 million passengers and 3000 trains passing through Denmark, safety is a major driver. The data that Fugro delivers will enable our teams to supervise the structure gauge and improve infrastructure maintenance predictions. All in all, it will help create the railway of the future.”

Data collection will begin in autumn 2019, followed by a full network capture from 2020 onwards. The resulting datasets will be imported into Banedanmark’s existing software and made available via Fugro’s web-based RILA Portal. The portal provides a single point of truth (SPOT) dataset from which users can view and download data, inspect and analyse assets, and share and extract value from asset data more efficiently than ever before. The data will benefit many of Banedanmark’s business activities, including track maintenance, asset management, landscaping, and detailed design by the construction and signalling divisions.