Strong and innovative from Alsace to Sub-Saharan Africa
In 2018, Frauscher founded its own location in France – which reflects the effort that the company invests in increasing customer proximity to learn from global markets, as Managing Director Mayank Tripathi explains.
Before joining Frauscher in 2016, he worked as an Engineer, Sales Manager and Sales and Marketing Director for a railway company in France with global presence. Mr Tripathi has a total of 15 years of experience in the railway signalling industry. “In addition to France, we are also active in the countries of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Frauscher has been active in the Maghreb region in particular since the nineties. We have been able to significantly intensify our relations with these markets in recent years. With the foundation of the office in France in 2018, a new milestone was set in this process”, he explains.
As with others all over the globe, the location in France reflects the effort that Frauscher invests in increasing customer proximity by eliminating barriers in terms of language and geographical distances. “We think that both sides can benefit from this. Being present in a market eases the exchange with customers significantly. More transparency gives us the possibility to learn and to ultimately provide our customers with exactly what they need within stipulated time frames”, Mr Tripathi says. The office in Alsace is located in Haguenau and hosts a team of five highly professional employees. Axle counter equipment on-site allows for the organisation of training with customers. “We do as well organise training sessions at our customer’s own facilities – or invite them to our training centre in Austria. Whatever meets their individual requirements”, Mr Tripathi adds.
Against that backdrop, Frauscher France is perfectly equipped to support their customer’s modernisation projects in all its markets throughout various segments – metros and trams as well as long-distance connections on which freight and passenger trains are operated. “Based on its modularity and freely selectable interfaces, products such as the Frauscher Advanced counter FAdC are predestined to support French system integrators and operators in changing from track circuits to axle counters. Depending on the requirements of the existing system, the FAdC can be connected to the interlocking via relay or Ethernet interface. The latter can be realised by implementing customer specific software protocols or our own Frauscher Safe Ethernet FSE. Due to its beneficial capabilities, this axle counter is used in countries all over the globe, including Australia, Austria, Poland, Switzerland or UK for example, where it has proven its capabilities under manifold conditions. At the moment, we are working on homologating our axle counters with major operators in our markets. We do already have several trials in place. Additionally, several Tram projects using the FAdC are in the stage of realisation, for example Tram Bordeaux, Tram Casablanca or Tram Avignon.”
Besides strengthening the company’s position in global markets, being on-site also supports Frauscher in terms of working on innovations, as Mr Tripathi explains: “We do as well use inputs from global railway markets to strengthen our portfolio. Working closely with customers helps us to identify future proof concepts, which consider new digital possibilities. Thereby we make sure to work on solutions that will enable the industry to fully utilise the potential that digitalisation offers.”
For example, Frauscher already provides its customers with various tools, such as the Frauscher Diagnostic System FDS or the Remote Monitoring Display RMD, which support preventive maintenance strategies. Furthermore, the Frauscher Tracking Solutions FTS offer interesting features in this context. “The continuous real-time condition monitoring of track and train components has often been discussed with customers in our markets in detail. The applications being considered cover a very broad spectrum and we look forward to working on a number of exciting projects here in future”, Mr Tripathi says.
