Abstract

Lex van der Poel (Dual Inventive)
Director and co-founder


Inge Thys (Infrabel)
Manager Operational Safety Implementation

Presentation title:
Maximising track availability goes hand in hand with increased workforce safety in Belgium.

Quote:
“A new way of working for the railway sector to benefit from is using remote control technology via the IoT platform for Rail.”

Summary:
Future railway traffic will intensify. Frequent track maintenance is necessary. The challenges of all parties involved here are to maximise track availability by executing works more efficiently and to reduce risks for track workers by using safer working methods. This can only be achieved by working in partnerships.

Infrabel and Dual Inventive cooperate in taking up these challenges. Infrabel uses an innovative work method to take and give up the possessions. This method, developed in conjunction with Dual Inventive, organises the safety measures with one press of the button, using remote control technology via the IoT platform for Rail. This system has been especially developed to be implemented within the existing Belgian safety processes. It can be safely deployed for controlled admission of trains during rail maintenance works.

By implementing a more efficient and secure worksite safety management and working method, the production time during maintenance increases significantly. Additionally, the safer working method will notably reduce the risk of irregularities. This contributes significantly to the objective to execute more works in a shorter space of time, as well as meeting the desire to keep the disruption for rail traffic to a minimum.

Bio:
Lex van der Poel is director and co-founder of Dual Inventive and has been active in the railway sector since 2004. With a background in civil engineering Lex van der Poel started at Infra Safety Services. He held several positions in which he was responsible for the development of Trackworkers safety equipment for Europe. Believing in innovation and wireless technology for the railway sector he founded the company Dual Inventive, aimed at developing technology products that make working on the railway infrastructure safer and more efficient, maximize rail capacity, and improve the reliability of the railway infrastructure. Besides this he is active for railAlert in the field of Productcertification of Workforce safety products plus he’s an expert at CEN, the European Committee for Standardization, advising in the development of standards in railway applications.

Inge Thys started 21 years ago started working in the construction industry which triggered my interest for planning & prevention at work. Throughout the years she specialised as prevention adviser & safety coordinator & projectmanager in heavy industrial environments. This convinced her that prevention and safety should be on top of the managementagenda. Since 4.5 years she works at Infrabel where she is now responsible as Manager Operational Safety Implementation. Where necessary they synchronize or improve planning and operations in order to obtain a safe working environment.

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