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Home > SAUDI ARABIA > Showroom
AN ITALIAN STATIONMASTER IN THE USA
Rome - OTP stands for Optimizing Traffic Planner, a system invented by the researchers and engineers of Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario (www.ansaldo-signal.com), the company of the Finmeccanica group, which for decades has been producing signals as well as driving and emergency management systems dedicated to the rail transport of passengers and goods. The OTP has been purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad (www.up.com), one of the most important railway networks in the United States and, with over 56,000 km of track, also one of the largest in the world. The OTP is a fully automatic computerised management system for rail traffic. It works by acquiring real-time information regarding the movement of trains, collected using a system of computer-controlled sensors. This information allows the system, using logic similar to that applied in the field of artificial intelligence, to establish the most convenient routes for each of the trains running. In this way, journey times can be minimised, transport energy costs reduced and, at the same time, customer service improved. Moreover, the system also collects and processes any information regarding problems, such as a train going too slowly, a stop in a station which for various reasons is longer than it should be, a faulty level crossing, or unplanned and unforeseeable emergency stops. These data make it possible to achieve two results at the same time: on one hand, that of ensuring absolute safety and, if necessary, allowing emergency intervention in the shortest time possible; on the other, that of increasing the overall number of trains running without exceeding the limits set by safety regulations. Basically: faster, safer, and more frequent trains, greater customer satisfaction, more effective use of the infrastructures and, consequently, reduced costs.
The OTP system will be produced by Union Switch & Signal from Pittsburgh (www.switchotp.com), the American associate of Ansaldo Signal NV from Amsterdam, the parent company of the network of companies dedicated to the production of rail signalling systems, in turn controlled by the Italian Finmeccanica group. The group is present in all the continents and has provided optimum solutions for the management of rail traffic also to countries which have traditionally been at the forefront of rail transport, such as France and Germany. In addition to the United States, Ansaldo Signal also has subsidiaries working in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, France, Sweden and Australia, while in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea and Venezuela, it has representative offices. The group thus has worldwide industrial experience, and over a hundred years of activity under its belt, which began with the manufacture small mechanical signals for Italy's first rail network, and has now evolved thanks to new technologies. Ansaldo Signal also produced the traffic management systems for the underground railway networks of Copenhagen, Lisbon, Los Angeles, Paris, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and those for controlling the trains on the high-speed networks in Italy, Great Britain, and Korea, not to mention the management systems for major lines in France, Spain, Italy and Austria, and those dedicated to rail traffic control in the major stations of Roma Termini, Manchester, Belo Horizonte in Brazil, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Beijing.
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