MINSK, 19 December (BelTA) – A ceremony to inaugurate an operations control center of Belarusian Railways took place in Minsk on 19 December. Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Rumas took part in the ceremony, BelTA has learned.
Sergei Rumas said: “I am pleased to be in this modern building for the launch of such an innovative project. While at the forefront of domestic transportation, Belarusian Railways acts as a transport link between countries of Europe and Asia. Belarusian Railways develops successfully and accounts for 63% of the freight traffic and about 33% of the passenger traffic in the country. The smoothly operating railway system allows successfully developing and introducing cutting-edge technologies in addition to ensuring safe, uninterrupted, and reliable transportation.”
Head of Belarusian Railways Vladimir Morozov noted that the company will celebrate its 157th anniversary on 27 December. “The operations control center represents the foundation and offers an opportunity for further growth. The systems and technologies it utilizes have been developed in the country,” he pointed out.
The operations control center leverages digital technologies to manage transportation operations and the work of Belarusian Railways' entire infrastructure. The center will take care of control of and oversight over the movement of passenger and freight trains, scheduled maintenance, the operation of engine and car depots, the management of freight cars of Belarusian shippers, interaction with the railway administrations in neighboring countries and with various agencies in Belarus.
The operations control center went online on 2 December in test mode. It went fully operational on 19 December.
The center's personnel can remotely manage train traffic and monitor the entire infrastructure.
The central display board consists of 64 high-resolution monitors and occupies nearly 80m2. The display board can be switched between various data display modes to allow the personnel to promptly evaluate the performance of Belarusian Railways as a whole and make the necessary organizational decisions.
Belarusian Railways consists of 21 subdivisions. The operations control center will manage train traffic in 13 of them, which make part of the main international transport corridors crossing Belarus. The center will take over control of all the train traffic by 2022.
In the near future Belarusian Railways intends to introduce automated solutions that will allow the computers to independently make up train schedules while taking good care of the safety of traffic.
The operations control center is one of the most important investment projects implemented by Belarusian Railways as part of the government program on developing the country's transport industry.
