Railway Technology

Growth at maximum speed

Experts testify a significant growth potential to railway technology. The industry is expecting an worldwide annual growth of between three and four percent in the partial sector of  rail vehicle engineering alone.

The railway industry in Germany is well positioned: Sales of all member companies in the German Association of the Railway Industry topped approximately 9.9 billion EUR in 2003, accounting for a world market share of approximately 15 percent.

Bavaria boasts high competence in railway technology

The railway technology industry is represented in Bavaria by extremely innovative and often highly specialized companies. The Transportation Systems division of Siemens AG, for example, with production sites in Nuremberg and Munich is one of the internationally leading providers of the railway industry.

„Transportation Systems" of Siemens AG is system integrator and provider of complete mobility solutions from one source. Besides rolling stock such as locomotives and wagons, the company provides complete solutions and modules for the electrical interlockings, for example, train control systems or operation control systems. Siemens cooperates with many, also regional suppliers from Bavaria.

Bavarian companies lead the field in other sectors as well. Max Bögl and Pfleiderer Infrastrukturtechnik, for instance, both based in Neumarkt/Oberpfalz, are the market leaders in ballastless track systems for high-speed railway lines.

At its Munich-Freimann engineering centre, DB Systemtechnik operates Europe's largest competence centre for railway technology with 350 employees and 10 test centres. Key areas of operation cover line capacity optimization, procurement of new rolling stock, performance optimization of existing rolling stock and infrastructure, and servicing and improvement of maintenance services.

Component suppliers and component manufacturers are to be found throughout Bavaria. In this sector there is, however, a focus on Nuremberg and Erlangen as well as on the city and county district of Munich. Businesses frequently specialize in the manufacture of individual components, in subsystems or specialized services.

Market and partners in railway technology

There is a fully differentiated supply network in the railway technology sector available in Metropolitan Nuremberg. This is organized in the "Center for Transportation and Logistics Neuer Adler" (CNA). The industry, transport companies, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the trade union organization IG Metal, towns, county districts and additional partners have been cooperating in the CAN since 1996. Their objective is to improve competitiveness of the entire region in transport and logistics.

Attractive research environment for railway technology

Technical solutions for rail components are therefore developed at a host of engineering or mechanical engineering institutes, at the  University of Erlangen-Nuremberg , for example, or at the universities of applied sciences in Augsburg and Nuremberg. Traffic research and traffic engineering are also subjects taught at Bavarian universities, especially at the TU Munich.

The close knit Bavarian research environment is therefore able to contribute to rail-specific solutions without the companies and institutions involved being immediately identified as associated with the railway technology sector. The know-how of the German Aeropspace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen (DLR) , for example, helped to develop the ICE aerodynamics.

Optimum environment

The railway network in Bavaria is not only a major part of the efficient infrastructure which is an essential location factor. The Bavarian railway technology industry also benefits from the fact that more and more modern railway vehicles of the Deutschen Bahn AG and private railway transport companies are run on this network. As a result, the latest technology developments from track engineering, control and safety as well as traffic control and customer information (e.g. the DEFAS project) are immediately introduced to the Bavarian rail transport system.