Rail Control System Market

The global Rail Control System market size is forecast to reach $6.2 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2022 to 2027. Rail control systems act as an integral part for optimizing railway network operations, including monitoring train locations or movement, signalling control, real-time train planning and many others. Rise in global rail expansion projects, rapid urbanization as well as the adoption of smart rail transport services can be considered as some of the major factors attributing to its market growth. Growing initiatives towards improving passenger safety, reducing train collision incidents by enhancing positive train control, as well as rising efforts towards increasing overall operational efficiency of existing railway networks can also help in assisting the market growth of varied rail control systems including intelligent signalling systems, integrated control systems solutions, route scheduling solutions, CBTC systems and many others. In addition, growing investment on supporting high-speed rail networks, increased shift towards digital railway automation, and so on can also drive the market forward. Furthermore, growing demand for advanced or intelligent traffic monitoring system for enhancing digital mobility along with rising rate of investments on railway infrastructural projects are set to fuel the market growth of rail control systems in the coming time.

Report Coverage

The report: “Rail Control System Market Forecast (2022-2027)”, by Industry ARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of Rail Control System Market.

By Type: Traffic Management System (Intelligent Signalling, Real-Time Train Planning & Route Scheduling, Centralized Traffic Control, Others), Control System (Positive Train Control System, Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) System, Integrated Control System, Train Collision Avoidance System, Others)

By Offering: Hardware (Vehicle Control Unit, Human Machine Interface, Mobile Communication Gateways, I/O Units, Badge Readers, Others), Software, Services (Commissioning & Integration, Testing & Diagnostics, Maintenance & Inspection)

By Train Type: Electric Multiple Unit (EMU), Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU), Metro & High Speed

By Communication Network: Ethernet Consist Network (ECN), Multifunction vehicle bus (MVB), Wire train bus (WTB), Others

By Application: Freight Trains, Light Rail/Trams, High Speed & VHS Trains, Commuter Rail, Metro/Subway Trains, Others

By Geography - North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Others), APAC (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, Others), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Others), RoW (Middle East, Africa)

Key Takeaways

• Traffic Management System is analyzed to grow with the highest CAGR in the global rail control system market during the forecast period 2022-2027, due to growing investments or governmental efforts towards modernizing railway infrastructures as well as rising focus on improving passenger travel experiences.
• APAC Rail Control System market held the largest share in 2020, owing to rise in train or rail clash accidents, and government support towards enhancing rail transport safety and security standards.
• Rising investment on railway infrastructure projects along with growing demand for advanced or intelligent traffic monitoring system towards enhancing digital mobility is analyzed to significantly drive the global rail control systems market during 2022-2027.

Rail Control System Market Segment Analysis-By Type

Based on type segmentation, Traffic Management System is analyzed to emerge as the fastest growing segment with a CAGR of 8.1% in the global rail control system market during the forecast period 2022-2027. Railway traffic management systems play a vital role towards functioning as well as overall supervision of the railway network, through train scheduling, traffic control, train signalling as well as routing. Factors including rising investments or governmental efforts towards modernizing railway infrastructures, growing number of commissioning, installation or servicing contracts related to railway operations, along with need for improving passenger travel experiences have been attributing to its market growth. Adoption of such traffic management systems in railways help in monitoring state of operations with automated control over signals and routes simultaneously for many trains, without causing timetable disruptions, thus gaining it wide popularity driving its market growth forward. Additionally, technological advances towards development of AI controlled traffic control systems, shift towards smart or intelligent rail traffic management along with growing R&D activities related to centralized traffic control systems can also impact the market growth in the long run. In July 2020, Estonian Railways had revealed about awarding a contract to Indra of €18.4m (around 22.58 USD) for designing, developing, implementation as well as launch of a traffic control system on the country’s 1214km-long network. Under this, centralised traffic control, regulation as well as planning systems based on its rail traffic management system (TMS) will be deployed in phases, followed by two years maintenance, scheduled for completion by 2025, which will enable automation, safety, faster and efficient incident management, and so on. Such factors are further set to boost the market growth of traffic management system in the coming years.

Rail Control System Market Segment Analysis-By Application

Metro/Subway Trains are analyzed to grow with the highest CAGR of 9.2% in the global rail control system market during the forecast period 2022-2027. Governmental initiatives towards promoting high-speed railway networks as well as rapid urbanization driving the need for faster public transport have been attributing to its market growth. In addition, growing demand for public transport alternatives like metro or subway trains due to rising road traffic across some major big cities, rising investments on metro railway infrastructure projects, increased availability of underground railway stations to promote subway train operations and so on can also drive the market growth of rail control systems forward. Moreover, rise in number of metro train crash incidents or fatalities along with high R&D activities associated with railway operations monitoring, train control or signalling systems can also fuel the market demand for rail control systems improving passenger safety in the long run. In September 2020, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had revealed about the launch of an indigenously-built communication-based train control signalling system, named i-ATS (automatic train supervision). This development was meant to reduce dependency on foreign vendors providing such technologies, with train operation management, including running as well as halting. Such factors are further set to assist the market growth of rail control systems within metro rails in the coming time.

Rail Control System Market Segment Analysis- By Geography

APAC region dominated the global rail control system market with a share of 37% in 2020, and is also analyzed to account for the highest market growth during 2022-2027. Rising rate of train clash accidents, rapid urbanization, as well as governmental efforts towards improving public transport safety and security standards have attributed to its market growth in the region. Additionally, growing investments on railway infrastructural development projects, technological advances including integration of AI, cloud and so on for optimizing rail control monitoring, significant development towards advanced traffic management or signalling systems along with increased number of upgradation, commissioning, maintenance or repair service railway network contracts can also drive the market growth forward in the long run. In September 2020, the European Investment Bank (EIB) had revealed about its plan of investing €650 m (around $797.62 Million) in order to support construction of a metro rail system within Kanpur, India. With this investment, a 32.4 km metro line having 18 elevated as well as 12 underground stations will be constructed, as a part of India’s fifth EIB funded metro rail project, which will help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions while improving air quality. In August 2022, a subsidiary of China Energy, named Xinshuo Railway Co., Ltd. announced about the launch of a centralized traffic control (CTC) system, meant for improving traffic management quality as well as efficiency with requirement of lesser human personnel. This development was done to improve transport as well as production integrated management capacity or efficiency, utilizing centralized management of signals, communication, power supply units, traffic control, and others, while meeting efforts of building a first class heavy haul railway. Such factors are further set to fuel the need for rail control systems in the coming time.

Rail Control System Market Drivers

Growing demand for advanced or intelligent traffic monitoring system towards enhancing digital mobility drives its market growth forward

Growing demand for advanced or intelligent traffic monitoring system towards enhancing digital mobility can be considered as a major factor boosting the market growth of rail control systems. Integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) in railway operation monitoring or surveillance can help in combating train delays, optimize train scheduling, improve passenger travelling experiences and so on. Adoption of AI based traffic management systems have been gaining wide popularity within railway infrastructures overtime owing to varied benefits including real-time passenger data availability, shorten time delays, supporting video surveillance, and many others. Growing initiatives or investment towards improving urban railway networks utilizing AI based video analytics, rising rate of train fatalities or accidents along with government efforts towards leveraging advanced technologies for improving railway transport services or facilities can also aid its market growth in the long run. According to Delhi Metro network, around 25.55 lakh passenger journeys were recorded in February 2022, in comparison to 12.25 lakh in October 2020, showing a gradual increase. In November 2020, Indian Railways had revealed about its plan of employing AI and data analytics towards analyzing freight data, passenger data, train operations related data and others, utilizing it for its passenger reservation system, along with introduction of new train services with predictive asset maintenance. In April 2022, SouthWestern Railways (SWR) had revealed about starting with the adoption of an AI based on board system, capable of providing real-time passenger count information within each train carriages for improving social distancing. This innovative system, in trial phase will help in offering real time occupancy data in the form of RAG status via SWR app or website, as a part of maintaining social distancing as well as avoiding overcrowding. Such factors are further set to assist the market growth of advanced or intelligent traffic monitoring or management systems within railways in the coming time.

Rising investments on railway infrastructure projects positively impacting the growth of rail control systems

Rising investments on railway infrastructure projects can also be considered as a major driver boosting the market growth of rail control system. Factors including increasing road traffic congestion due to rapid urbanization, growing demand for cost-effective public transportation, along with need for high passenger comfort and safety have been attributing to the market growth. Investment on projects related to establishment of new railway infrastructures, governmental spending on supporting metro rails to improve faster rail travel, along with rise in modernization, commissioning or maintenance of the existing railway networks can also drive the need for rail control systems in the long run. In September 2022, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) had revealed about its approval of $356.67 million loan to the Government of India, as a part of supporting Chennai metro rail system expansion. This project will involve construction of a new corridor in Chennai’s metro network, under its Phase 2 alongside offering integrated access to bus stations, suburban rail, as well as city’s main airport. Additionally, this railway project will also be addressing traffic bottlenecks as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions through raising public urban transportation options. Such factors are set to fuel the market growth of various rail control systems in the long run.

Rail Control System Market Challenges

Complexities related to integration coupled with requirement of high capital investment of rail management system hinders its market growth

Complexities related to integration coupled with requirement of high capital investment of rail management system act as one of the major factors restraining the market growth. Since a railway control or rail operation management system comprises of various components, including hardware, software as well as networking units, eventually contributing to configuration or installation complexities for the rail operators. Additionally, with technological advances and integration of smart control rail traffic monitoring or management systems, its implementation with the existing railway infrastructures creates protocol issues, raising configurability concerns. Moreover, capital investment required for periodic maintenance, repair and upgradation services towards reducing mobility disruptions and improving transport safety operation raises additional operational costs for the railway operators, thus adversely impacting its market growth.

Rail Control System Market Landscape

Product launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the rail control system market. The Rail control system top 10 companies include:

• Thales Group
• Bombardier Inc.
• ABB Ltd.
• Siemens AG
• Knorr-Bremse AG
• - Toshiba Corporation
• Alstom S.A
• Atos SE
• Ansaldo STS
• Hitachi Rail STS

Acquisitions/Technology Launches/Partnerships

• In March 2022, Thales Transport announced about the launch of its eight generation digital signalling solution, SelTrac G8 CBTC system, which includes a set of advanced features. Development of this advanced CBTC system was done to enable rail operators towards managing network growth, extensions as well as fleet expansions for faster response reading managing disruptions on metro networks.
• In November 2020, Bombardier announced about the launch of a railway signalling digital service, named EBI Sense, capable of providing predictive maintenance. Development of this cloud native subscription based service was done to help in converting asset performance data into powerful insights, for enabling infrastructure operators manage maintenance more efficiently, reduce disruptions alongside enhancing railway availability.

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