“Be Moved”: PRASA’s digital vision for Africa’s railways

Sanibonani!

In Africa, we say, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This proverb resonates deeply with PRASA's journey, where partnership and collaboration are the bedrock of our transformation. With our ICT strategy and trusted partners like Huawei, we are not just rebuilding but leapfrogging into the future, transforming PRASA into a world-class passenger rail corporation.

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa, or PRASA for short, is the largest railway passenger transport company in Africa. We have 22,300 kilometers of railway track, 498 stations, and 1,800 trains. Each year, 5.5 million trips are made on our rail network.

PRASA is a manufacturer and provider of public rail passenger services. Our mission is to be a driving force in delivering safe, affordable passenger rail and bus services, connecting communities and successfully executing our secondary mandate of generating income from our assets. We are guided by innovation and driven by spirit of collaboration.

PRASA's path toward intelligence

South Africa's first railway line was constructed in 1859. Over the past 160-plus years, South Africa's railway network has gone through the industrial era and electrification era. In the 2010s, we realized that the information era and intelligent era were fast approaching.

Initial engagement with Huawei took place in 2013, with the provision of GSM-R, the Global System for Mobile Communications–Railway, the international communications standard for railway applications. The engagement has since evolved into a digital and innovation partnership.

Our approach to digitalization is three-fold: Go Broadband, Go Cloud, and Go Intelligent, and we've also specified the projects for each phase, to ensure that our digital transformation goes smoothly.

Perimeter protection: AI-enabled fiber sensing makes train travel safer

A constant challenge for PRASA has been theft. Especially when tracks are located near urban centers, as is the case for commuter trains, intrusions onto the railway perimeter have been frequent and resulted in heavy losses and high rehabilitation expenses. At times, wholesale plundering of certain sections of the system has led to service interruptions.

But we solved this problem with the deployment of perimeter protection solution.

As the first layer of protection between the railway and the outside world, the purpose of the railway perimeter is to ensure safe operations. Interference near the perimeter makes the tracks and equipment vulnerable to interference caused by animals and harsh weather conditions, as well as theft.

Safeguarding railway perimeter protection is complicated by false alarms, missed alarms, and poor system stability. In addition, the data these systems collect isn’t centralized. This makes it harder to generate alarms, and the costs of managing independent systems are higher than it should be, demanding extensive manpower to be truly effective. As a result, a lot of effort has gone into integrating multiple complementary sensing technologies while increasing their ability to detect different types of threats.

A solution with a vision

Huawei’s solution combines optical technologies and machine vision, a form of AI that analyzes video data. It integrates optical and visual data to detect and report alerts, implementing full-lifecycle services of the railway perimeter security system.

This highly reliable solution has been developed based on research into current state-of-the-railways, an in-depth analysis of PRASA railway operations and needs, and Huawei's industry-leading technologies such as intelligent vibration-sensing optical fiber and video AI. With the support of the AI model, vibration-sensing optical fiber, and video monitoring, the solution delivers high stability and reliability in diverse scenarios, such as strong wind and heavy and heavy rain.

Forging connections across Africa

Protecting the integrity of PRASA’s system has implications for the whole of Africa. According to the African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development, the lack of infrastructure interconnecting African countries is a continent-wide weakness, seriously hampering the exchange of goods, services, and people.

To address this issue, the African Union's Agenda 2063 proposed a cross-border railway network project for intra-Africa interconnection. The project aims to establish an integrated railway network from Egypt to South Africa to connect the entire African continent. South Africa's railway system will be an important part of this network.

Following the successful deployment in local depots, we plan to apply these solutions to other scenarios, such as cable protection.

PRASA's slogan is Be Moved. Let's move towards the intelligent era together.