Dear

Another Christmas newsletter? Yes, that's right, the time of year has come when we all ask ourselves where the last twelve months have gone and when we can open the mince pies.

Time to take a look back and review the past year. Together with our customers and partner companies, we were once again able to help shape the railway landscape and public transport this year.

366 new projects in 365 days

With 366 major and minor projects, we started more new projects than there are days in the year. We were also able to successfully complete 254 projects. These include some highlights that we would like to share with you.

News from Rolling Stock

As the year draws to a close, the new winter season starts at Furka Car Transport and the first newly modernised control car goes into commercial operation on time. We are sure that the new control car will also be taking some of you through the Furka Tunnel on your skiing holidays this year. We look back with satisfaction on an intensive project phase and would like to thank Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB) and our subcontractors for their excellent cooperation. In addition to this highlight, we can look back on an ever-increasing number of exciting consulting mandates in which we were able to support our customers in Switzerland and internationally with their questions relating to the life cycle of a vehicle, from conceptualisation through procurement to maintenance.

Highlights from the energy supply sector

In the area of energy supply, we have driven forward various mobility projects, primarily in Switzerland, France and Germany. On our doorstep in Thun, we are helping our local bus operator STI to create the charging infrastructure for the future e-bus operation in Thun, while we are supporting Alstom at their Villeneuve plant with the construction of the multi-voltage system to supply the commissioning tracks.

We have also contributed to the switch to emission-free vehicles with various simulation studies, for example for the bus networks in the cities of Limoges and Biel or for the railway in the Allgaeu and Upper Franconia regions in Bavaria

We were also involved in barrier-free station renovations for MGB at Andermatt, Hospental and Oberalp Pass stations and pushed ahead with the project planning for the renewal of several switching stations. This year also saw the start of construction for the complete renewal of the BLS line between Solothurn and Moutier, where our catenary planning team is supervising the construction work during the execution phase. In terms of execution, we are also involved in the Tausendfuessler project in Bonn on the subject of earthing and overhead contact lines and for the earthing concept in the Fehmarnsund Tunnel. We are also proud to have recently been awarded the contract to support DB Energie with the modernisation of the control technology for two switching stations in Mockau and Angerdsorf.

Digitalisation as the topic of the hour

In the new area of digitalisation, we were able to recruit Markus Wachter as a competent and experienced team leader for the control and signalling technology team and are therefore very well positioned in all three teams (IT security - Juan Carlos Lopez Ruggiero, OT security - Michael Aebischer and control and signalling technology - Markus Wachter). We are particularly proud of our first major contract success in the area of OT security. Since mid-2024, we have been working as verifiers and validators for phases 1 - 4 of cyber security verification in accordance with TS50701 for SBB's FRMCS programme. In the IT security team, we have successfully carried out the first cyber security site assessments for small and medium-sized companies, thus laying an important foundation for the cyber security development of these companies.

We would like to thank you for the exciting challenges that we were able to master in 2024 and look forward to continuing to support you as a trustworthy partner and benevolent employer in the coming year.

RAM calculation tool Theseus

The tool that shows the way out of the labyrinth

In the RAMS area, we developed our own RAM calculation tool called Theseus this year. This provides a useful calculation tool for meshed networks, such as supply networks and radio systems. Based on graph theory and RAM formulas for series and parallel circuits, Theseus enables precise calculations and helps engineers to optimally analyse complex networks based on graph theory and RAM formulas.

News from England

Recruitment - To spearhead the next chapter of our business plan, we are pleased that Sean Buchanan joined the UK exec team as Head of Engineering and Projects. Sean is a chartered engineer and chartered manager with over 35 experience across rail and adjacent sectors. Sean’s experience covers a wide range of engineering disciplines including electrical, telecoms, signalling, mechanical, chemical, mechanical and process. Particular strengths are project management, assurance, risk and safety.

Diversification – through a new contract with Network Rail, we have successfully entered into a new sub-sector: rolling stock mechanical engineering. We are coupling our technical and project management expertise with our supply-chain partner experts.

Projects – we recently completed a range of projects covering safety case, EMC and power studies, the UK, Middle East and Australia.

InnoTrans 2024 - a complete success

The world’s largest railway trade fair InnoTrans was another highlight of this year. As part of the Swissrail joint stand, we were one of the 2,940 exhibitors in Berlin. InnoTrans broke a record this year with 170,000 visitors from 133 countries, which we also felt at our stand. Over the course of a week, our team had enriching discussions with experts from all over the world. We also had the opportunity to present our ODOMAG sensor, which we are developing together with PhySens, our smart maintenance solution Romonto and our services in the field of cyber security. 

2024 was characterised by growth

For Enotrac, the past year was characterised by growth. We increased the total number of employees in Switzerland, the UK and Australia to 90, expanded the Cyber Security division and welcomed a total of 16 new team members across all locations. 

Our Winterthur office has grown considerably in just one year and hosts now 9 employees.  Enotrac has also expanded globally. With the founding of Enotrac Australia this year, we are now represented on the other side of the globe with an office in Newcastle north of Sydney and are already looking forward to exciting projects in Australia in the coming year.

There have also been some internal innovations, for example we have given our own document management system QBase a new, modern look. Following a comprehensive redesign, we have successfully put the system upgrade into operation. The in-house developed system replaces its almost 20-year-old predecessor and boasts enhanced user functions, faster processing speeds and a fresh user interface. In this way, we are increasing the efficiency of our document management.

And last but not least, get to know Blinky 

And finally, we would like to introduce you to a new team member. As part of our business development in Australia and in line with the company Enotrac Australia, which was founded this year, we have adopted Koala Blinky at Port Stephens Koala Hospital. 

Full steam ahead into 2025

Many thanks to all our customers and partners for their trust and excellent cooperation. We would also like to thank our employees, as none of this would have been possible without them. We look forward to new challenges and exciting projects in 2025 and wish you and your families a relaxing holiday season, lots of fun and a successful start into the new year.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2025

The whole Enotrac team