News
Issue No. 28 - April/May 2006
News
Sydac has Europe safely on track
Adelaide company Sydac has won a $2 million contract to provide two train driving simulators to First ScotRail. One of the UK’s largest railway franchises, First ScotRail will use the system to train new and experienced drivers in train handling techniques and hazard response. First ScotRail provides 70 million passenger journeys a year, and operates on a railway network that carries the equivalent of Australia’s population every week. With trains travelling as fast as 240 km per hour, UK drivers need to be among the most skilled in the world. But how do you teach a new - or even an experienced - driver how to react when it’s the middle of a Scottish winter, the train is rounding a bend, and there’s a potential problem ahead? The Sydac simulator is an exact replica of the train cab, which exists in a virtual reality world - but so real that the driver is soon immersed in training and usually forgets it is only a simulation.
The instructor can test the driver across all safety critical events ranging from track and signal faults to animals on the line, vandalism, fire, and even snowstorms. Sydac’s win is all the more impressive because it followed a hotly contested bid involving a dozen large companies, mainly from Europe. Sydac has been providing training technology to the Australian rail and defence industries for the past 15 years. This is the company’s second major simulator sale to the UK. In 2005, Sydac delivered its inaugural simulator to Chiltern Railways which operates in the Oxfordshire area.
Sydac CEO Adrian Smith said the company’s intention in 2006 is to shake up the UK market, and launch Sydac UK into Europe in 2007. “We are setting up a permanent office in the UK to support our client base and secure the lion’s share of the $10 million-plus projects we have bid on in the last few months alone,” he said
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