Hitachi Rail announced Jan. 17 that it had agreed to acquire Omnicom, a digital rail monitoring business, from Balfour Beatty, “marking a key strategic pillar for Hitachi Rail’s new digital asset management business, known as HMAX.” The acquisition was reported as complete on Aug. 1.
Omnicom provides software and hardware for surveying, inspecting and monitoring rail infrastructure assets, including its Infrastructure Monitoring System, gauge clearance measurement, line visual inspection and scanning infrastructure. Its monitoring systems can be installed on trains and uses edge computing and machine learning to provide near real-time anomaly detection on rail tracks. The technology can enhance the decision making for maintenance planning and the asset lifecycle.
With a more than 25-year track record in railway technology, Omnicom’s monitoring and geometry measurement solutions are deployed by a number of its largest customers, Hitachi Rail reported in January. The technology is said to collect trillions of bytes of images per day, allowing its customers to optimize their trackside maintenance.
The acquisition by Hitachi Rail will support Omnicom’s growth strategy to expand beyond the UK into the U.S. and European markets. Balfour Beatty’s UK Rail business will continue to focus on its “core capability of managing, enhancing and maintaining thousands of miles of railways and supporting rail infrastructure across the UK, crucial for community connectivity and economic growth,” Hitachi Rail noted.
“In order to capitalize on its unique technological solutions to the Rail market, Omnicom requires an owner with a truly global reach and a complementary culture,” Mick Rayner, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s UK Rail business, said in January. “Hitachi’s acquisition will further enable Omnicom to leverage its capabilities and apply its expertise in the rail and digital technology sectors in both the U.S. and European markets.”
Omnicom’s remote monitoring and measurement solutions will feed into Hitachi Rail’s new HMAX suite, “enabling the pioneering technology to be brought to the global market,” according to Hitachi Rail. HMAX, launched at InnoTrans in September 2024, is a comprehensive digital asset management solution that, Hitachi Rail said, “seamlessly integrates a vast array of live data from the train and the surrounding rail infrastructure into a single platform.” The platform uses AI and machine learning to process the data and extract knowledge and apply it to achieve operational and service enhancements, including traffic optimization, energy consumption reduction, and an on-condition/predictive maintenance process.
HMAX, Hitachi Rail said, also enables huge volumes of data to be processed at the “edge” (on the trains or infrastructure) in real time, with only relevant information sent back to the operational control centers. This, the company said, “enables an unprecedented improvement in the speed that actionable insights reach transport operators, as previously it could take days for data to be processed in maintenance locations.”
“This is a strategic acquisition for Hitachi Rail,” Hitachi Rail CEO Giuseppe Marino said in January. “Plugging Omnicom’s pioneering track monitoring tools into our digital asset management platform, will further strengthen our global offer to optimize customers’ rail services and the surrounding infrastructure. New technological solutions such as our HMAX platform demonstrate the power of AI to enhance the performance of our railway infrastructure and systems.”
“This acquisition strengthens Omnicom’s ability to collaborate, innovate and deliver AI-enabled systems and services whilst further enhancing the safety, efficiency, and reliability of rail infrastructure, building on our proven data driven solutions which help predict and prevent railway asset failures,” Omnicom Managing Director Sanjay Razdan said in January. “I look forward to Omnicom’s continuing success as part of the Hitachi brand.”
On Aug. 1, Hitachi Rail reported that with HMAX already installed on more than 2,000 trains globally, Omnicom solutions will now feed into the platform’s bespoke offering for Hitachi Rail’s customers around the world. The ”new solutions and proprietary technology” it acquired include software and hardware for surveying, inspecting, and monitoring rail infrastructure assets including the overhead line and track. The monitoring technology, it said, can be installed on trains and uses ”edge computing and machine learning to provide near real-time anomaly detection on rail tracks”; additionally, the technology can enable the collection of trillions of bytes of images per day, allowing customers to optimize their trackside maintenance planning and the asset lifecycle.
“This strategic acquisition complements our existing cutting-edge proprietary technology, backed by the digital power of the Hitachi Group,” Hitachi Rail Executive Director and CTO Koji Agatsuma said. “Our HMAX platform is driving the digital transformation of rail, and the addition of Omnicom’s track monitoring tools further strengthens our global offer to optimize our customer’s railway systems.”
Commented Sanjay Razdan of Omnicom: “From today our technology will complement Hitachi Rail’s existing digital asset management solutions, enabling HMAX to deliver even more for customers around the world. This acquisition will also enable us to benefit from the unique digital capabilities of the wider Hitachi Group, enabling us to continue to innovate and deliver AI-enabled systems that can optimize the management of railway infrastructure.”
Railway Age Executive Editor Marybeth Luczak contributed to this report.
