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Facilitating innovation & technology development to enhance railway safety
By the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department

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Railway safety in Hong Kong

Railways are the backbone of public transport in Hong Kong. The railway network is ever expanding with high daily patronage. Ageing railway assets with limited nighttime maintenance windows add to the complexity of maintaining a safe, reliable and efficient railway and meeting the public’s expectation, which are the common objectives of the HKSAR Government and operators. The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) is the regulatory authority on railway safety in Hong Kong. EMSD’s jurisdictions cover MTR Railway Network, Automated People Mover (APM) at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), Tramways, and the Peak Tram. In addition to law enforcement and public education, EMSD promotes and facilitates the wider adoption of innovation and technology (I&T) solutions to enhance the safe operation of railway. This article elaborates EMSD’s effort in the promotion, facilitation and collaboration with railway operators on I&T development.

 

E&M InnoPortal and pilot I&T projects

With a view to delivering high-quality public services, government departments need to tackle many practical issues in their daily operations. With the advancement of technology, these challenges can be met by making use of I&T, so called “I&T wishes”. There are many emerging entrepreneurs in I&T field in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, who are very resourceful in I&T knowledge and innovative thinking, but lack job references and applications to turn their ideas into business solutions. With that in mind, EMSD launched an online technological demand matching platform called “E&M InnoPortal” in March 2018 to facilitate wider adoption of I&T. Up to December 2023, over 500 I&T wishes and 1,190 I&T solutions have been submitted to the E&M InnoPortal for matching. Among the I&T wishes, over 190 pilot projects have been implemented. On railway safety, there are thirty-five I&T wishes, of which twelve have been successfully matched and implemented.

 

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EMSD E&M InnoPortal

 

Even with a matching on the E&M InnoPortal, an I&T wish would still need the necessary funding support to turn the I&T solution into practical application. The Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB) rolled out a funding scheme called TechConnect in mid-2017 to assist government departments to improve the quality of public services through the use of I&T. Government departments can now realise their service improvement ideas through I&T making use of TechConnect funding and solutions from E&M InnoPortal. Many of these projects are initially of “proof of concept” types. After evaluation of their feasibility and effectiveness, government departments can decide to proceed for a wider adoption. Up to December 2023, eight pilot projects on railway safety, matched by E&M InnoPortal and funded under TechConnect, are either successfully completed or being implemented.

 

Promoting and facilitating the adoption of I&T solutions to enhance railway safety

EMSD continuously facilitates and promotes partnership with stakeholders in I&T collaboration, including railway operators, I&T solution providers, research institutes and universities to enrich the I&T development and application in railway safety to safeguard public safety. In the past five years, EMSD rolled out fifteen I&T projects, covering a wide range of trials to solve railway safety and reliability problems.

 

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EMSD Railway related I&T projects in the past 5 years (“@” – Award Winning I&T Projects at the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva)

 

Among these fifteen I&T projects, six received invention awards at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva. EMSD presented nine of the I&T projects to railway industry stakeholders at various international conferences.

 

In 2023 International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, EMSD received notable recognition for their I&T projects. In particular, the Tramway Derailment and Collision Prevention System was granted the special award. These achievements highlight EMSD's effort and commitment to facilitating and promoting I&T development for enhancing railway safety and reliability. Some of the I&T projects are highlighted in ensuing paragraphs.

 

Semantic AI for predictive maintenance of railway track system

This innovation project applies Semantic AI technology to analyse the past permanent way incidents and associated maintenance data to derive health indices for indicating the healthiness of the permanent way system and facilitating predictive maintenance. Also, it provides dashboards for incident trends and automates the incident analysis process.

 

With the successful implementation of this Semantic AI system, EMSD shared this system with MTR Corporation Ltd for further development and exploring the feasibility of expanding this application to other railway systems.

 

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Awards received in International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva 2023

 

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Knowledge Graph for Semantic AI for predictive maintenance of railway track system

 

 

Smart Driver Assistant

The driverless APM providing passenger services between airport terminals is one of the crucial systems at the airport. During maintenance activities at night, manual driving of the train is sometimes needed. Incidents due to human errors had happened during manual driving operation in the past. To tackle the problem, EMSD utilised the E&M InnoPortal and successfully linked up with a I&T solution provider to develop an innovative solution, the Smart Driver Assistant (SDA). This innovation project introduced a ground-breaking portable smart device with AI and video analytic edge-computing system to detect real-time trackside conditions and improper driver behaviour during manual driving operation. The SDA provides instant visual and audible alerts to warn driver and traffic controller in the event that the driver does not follow the track side signal and other misbehaviour.

 

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Onsite trial of SDA in APM

 

In October 2023, the Singapore railway operator, SBS Transit (SBST), expressed interest and conducted a series of site tests with the SDA in their Downtown Line. Their tests focused on the detection of trackside signals, obstacles, point position, signs of driver fatigue and driving misbehaviors. Inspired by EMSD’s design, SBST is developing their own SDA for implementation on their Downtown Line and Northeast Line in the first quarter of 2024.

 

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SBS Transit’s trial implementation of SDA on the Downtown Line

 

Train-borne infrastructure inspection system

To realise real-time monitoring of the trackside infrastructure of the Hong Kong metro, light rail and cross-border heavy rail system, EMSD introduced the pioneering train borne high speed point cloud monitoring system operating at 80 km/h and put it into trial operation at MTR Kwun Tong Line to detect and predict defect/irregularity of trackside infrastructure during the operating hours of the railway systems in Hong Kong. The precious non-traffic hours at night can therefore be released for other physical trackside maintenance works.

 

The system deploys artificial intelligence, dual thermal cameras and 4th generation of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system with Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) positioning technology. The system is designed to be mounted on existing MTR passenger trains. Defect and irregularity of trackside infrastructure along the 200 km route of railway system can be detected and predicted by the artificial intelligence algorithm, which analyses on real time basis the differences of 3D point cloud images taken at every cm2 of the trackside infrastructure.

 

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Train-borne infrastructure inspection system

 

Tramway derailment and collision prevention system

Trams are running outdoor with other road transportations rather than an enclosed protected area. Stones, metals and other small foreign objects may be brought from outer area and trapped at the track groove, which would increase the risk of derailment. In fact, there were derailment and collision incidents due to small or foreign objects trapped at the track groove in the past. Small / foreign objects trapped at the track groove may not be easily spotted by tram driver with naked eyes under nighttime / bad weather conditions or even daytime with bright sunlight.

 

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Tramway derailment and collision prevention system

 

This real-time object detection system aims to identify small foreign objects on tram track groove and then alert the tram driver to respond and prevent tram from derailment caused by the tram wheels hitting small foreign object on tram track groove.

 

Government’s innovation facilitator

The government has set policy initiatives to promote I&T development, including improving infrastructure, nurturing talents, supporting R&D, and collaborating with industry, academia, and research institutes. These efforts have laid a strong foundation for sustainable I&T development.

 

EMSD, as the government's innovation facilitator, is keen to continue to play a crucial role in fostering collaboration with railway operators and other relevant stakeholders on I&T development. The results of these I&T developments will enhance railway safety and service reliability for the betterment of the public.

 

 

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