Siveco China’s General Manager speaks on safety and lifecycle-cost at Urban Transportation Conference in Wuhan

Siveco China's General Manager Bruno Lhopiteau was invited to speak at the France-China Urban Transportation Conference held in Wuhan on March 5, 2009 in presence of over 150 high officials from various provincial and municipal bureaus. The conference was opened by the Vice-Major of Wuhan Mr Yin Weizhen and the Consul General of France in Wuhan Mr. Freymuth.

 
Drawing on his long experience of metro projects in Asia, Bruno Lhopiteau presented a paper on the topic of reducing the lifecycle cost of an infrastructure through the implementation of an integrated maintenance management system (MMS) from the construction stage. Noting that China has succeeded in controlling construction costs in infrastructure projects, citing Nanjing metro's success in this regards, Bruno elaborated on the less tangible costs appearing during construction and operation, such as safety issues which have become critical considering China's current political situation. After explaining that maintenance was in fact the core business of infrastructure operators, taking the example of a metro project, Bruno insisted that owners must start implementing the MMS at the latest two months before signing contract with the rolling stock supplier, thus allowing the building of a complete technical database for future operation. This novel approach, already implemented by Siveco in Singapore (LTA's Northeast Line and Circle Line), has been further adapted based on the characteristics of the Chinese economy. Showing Siveco's strong commitment to China, Bruno also announced that the company was now investing in R&D and developing training programs with Chinese Universities.

 
During the separate Q&A session, the lively discussions showed that metro operators were keenly aware of the failure of other software projects (the so-called "EAM" projects) to deliver any real-life benefits. Time may be right to try the more suitable approach recommended by Siveco based both on international experience of greenfield metro projects and the specifities of maintenance in China.