Urban mobility and innovative transportation systems are the focus of this year’s UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Montreal. At the conference, Voith will be presenting solutions that increase vehicle efficiency and make public urban transportation systems more attractive. From the rails to the road to water, the drive specialist is involved in virtually every form of public urban transportation. On site, visitors to Booth 2L122 can take a closer look at models of the next generation of the DIWA automatic transmission and the Tomlinson coupler.
More than half the world’s population today lives in metropolitan areas. This creates enormous amounts of traffic in a city. In megacities such as Tokyo, São Paulo or New York, gridlock is increasingly becoming a threat – with some serious consequences for the economy even today. To boost their attractiveness and quality of life, cities are planning increased use of auto-free zones and high road tolls, in Oslo for example. However, this approach can only be implemented on a sustainable basis if the public urban transportation system is expanded at the same time.
Besides subways and metros, operators are increasingly making use of high-performance Bus Rapid Transit systems (BRT). Express bus lines, due to their marginal effects on city infrastructure and the relative ease and cost-effectiveness of implementing them, represent an effective addition to the rail system. The concepts are generally based on a combination of dedicated lanes, short headway, special bus stops and buses being given right of way at intersections.
The future of urban transportation with the DIWA automatic transmission
For the first time in North America, Voith will be showing at the conference its study on the next generation of the DIWA automatic transmission for buses. The concept is still based on the proven differential converter principle but is supplemented with a central recovery unit that requires virtually no extra installation space. The 48-volt electric motor is integrated around the vibration damper. Consequently, no extra systems need be integrated into the driveline for partial hybridization.
The Tomlinson coupler: Automatic coupling in North America
As a system manufacturer, Voith offers solutions covering the entire driveline of rail vehicles. Operators benefit from additional reliability and efficiency as the components are optimally matched. Voith is exhibiting its Tomlinson couplers for railcars and subways in the North American market. This coupler is used, for example, on the Toronto Rocket, the current vehicle generation in the subway network serving the city of Toronto, Canada, and its population of more than 2.6 million.
Service: Minimum downtime using exchange pools
With its service network, Voith supports operators of buses and rail vehicles in reducing their downtimes even more during maintenance and repair. Using regional exchange pools, old units can be replaced simply and even at short notice with counterparts that have undergone general overhauling – anywhere in the world and often within one day. These “Reman” units are always up to the current state of engineering and pass the same quality test as a newly manufactured alternative.
Voith then completely overhauls the used components. Many components can be reused in this process following cleaning and intensive testing. In this way, operators don’t just save money, they also contribute to protecting the environment.
Focus session with Voith
Operators today need to monitor performance data on a daily basis to be able to operate their road and rail vehicles efficiently and sustainably. They can prevent technical outages and optimize processes. This is exactly the topic that Dr. Henrik C. Bülau, Vice President Product Management DIWA and Damper, will discuss in a focus session at the UITP.
As a long-time expert in drivelines, he will also offer insight into the world of innovative asset life-cycle management solutions for rail vehicles. Voith systems, such as OPRA, allow operators to retrieve economic and technical data, updated on a daily basis, and to follow trends. Benefiting from this transparency, operators can save money and optimize the availability of their vehicles.
You can find everything about the Voith presentation at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit 2017 at: https://voith.com/uitp
Voith Turbo, a Group Division of Voith GmbH, is a specialist for intelligent drive solutions, systems and comprehensive services. Customers from highly diverse industries such as oil and gas, energy, rail and commercial vehicles, ship technology, mining and mechanical engineering rely on the advanced technologies and solutions-driven expertise of Voith Turbo.
For 150 years, Voith’s technologies have been inspiring customers, business partners and employees around the world. Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 19,000 employees, sales of €4.3 billion and locations in more than 60 countries worldwide and is thus one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe. Being a technology leader, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport & automotive.
