Using data smartly for an efficient rail operation and maintenance

Data analytics – a topic that was once restricted to boardroom meetings, is finally being leveraged fully fledged by organisations across various sectors. Whether it is in gaining insights into customer behaviour, keeping track of employees’ performance or learning the know-how of market trends, the role of data analytics is abounding. In fact, even its application in critical infrastructure sector like the railways cannot be overstated.

The recent association between Indian Railways and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad testifies the scope of data analytics in the rail industry. The two tied hands to use AI and data analytics in analysing passengers-related data, train operations-related data, freight data and asset-related data for passenger reservation system, launch of new trains and asset maintenance.

Data analytics is transforming traditional business practices in unimaginable ways – across private and public sectors. Especially when the sector in question is railways, the amount of data is colossal because not only does it contain data on assets, it also has unstructured data from social media including customer feedback, thus posing all the more complex scenario for the railroad companies. Currently, data is being used for real-time train information system (RTIS), train inquiry system and control office application but there is still a whole range of opportunities which the sector can explore. Moreover, to make the most of data analytics, it is crucial to leverage big data smartly and only rely on those software developed by companies with unparalleled credentials.

Fortunately, in India, a number of analytics companies are emerging owing to which the market holds immense growth potential and therefore, the scope of railway industry is also great. With the likes of such companies is WGD Analytics that offers analytics solutions for private and public organisations across various industries. Its range of products include software application for data analytics, security analytics and social media analytics. WGD Analytics has catered to several business organisations, backed by a team of experts and analysts. Due to this, the company has gained prominence within the sphere of data analytics over the years.