Exhibitor interview with Faiveley/Wabtec

2022-10-14

Who are you and what is your role in Wabtec? 
– My name is Magnus Larsson, and I am the Regional Manager in the Nordic regions for Faiveley/Wabtec.

What kind of company is Wabtec and what do you work with?
– We are one of the big leaders in the railway industry in the Nordic regions. We are manufacturing all the subsystems that has to do with trains, except the train carriage and interior details. It is about everything between air condition systems and breaks to passenger information systems.

How come Wabtec decided to be a part of Train & Rail? 
– Our expectation is that this is going to be the new industry exhibition of the future in the Nordic region. As members of Swedtrain we have driven to create a new industry exhibition at the Nordic region market that is easy to get to. An exhibition in Stockholm increases the catchment area and that makes it easier for people outside the Nordic region to get to the exhibit and participate.

What kind of goal setting does Wabtec have with Train & Rail?
– To interact with industry colleagues and find more contacts. To market ourselves and find more business opportunities. But also, to make our trademark stronger in the Nordic region and attract more coworkers.

From your perspective which question do you value the most for the future of the railway?
– To not wait for the big political decisions such as investments when it comes to new infrastructure. It is important to drive the improvement forward with what exists today. Like improving the already existing the vehicle fleet. There is so much work that can be done today, but that also requires very small stakes.

How do you work with this question yourselves?
– We drive innovation very hard, both when it comes to technical development and sustainability. For example, we have developed conversion to organic refrigerant, life extension of breaking equipment and passenger counter solutions that can optimize the traffic. We have a lot of exempels.

What do you wish from industry colleagues/decision makers so that you can work even better taking care of these challenges?
– What has been missing for long is the political drive. One example is from the industry segment where Faiveley/Wabtec also is active, is that in Norway it is decided that all the ferry operators needs to convert their boats from diesel to electric powered and in Sweden the politicians needs to become better at raising the requirement so that readjustment gets the driving force that it needs.