With more than 100 years of history in Canada, Siemens has played a key role in some of the country’s most transformative infrastructure across areas as varied as health care and energy. Now that we must rethink and modernize our transportation, Siemens Mobility is ready to provide world-class technology that will contribute to sustainability, accessibility and economic recovery goals.
To that end, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, the former CEO of VIA Rail, joined Siemens Mobility’s Canadian team last year to increase its local resources and expertise and steer it toward growth. This transportation-industry enthusiast accepted the challenge at a time when Canada’s public-transport infrastructure is undergoing major modernization.
A strong footprint in Canada
While Siemens Mobility already serves vehicles, rail infrastructure and services in several Canadian cities, including Calgary, Kitchener–Waterloo, Edmonton and Ottawa, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano has big plans for the future and emphasizes innovation. One aspect of this growth strategy led to the recent acquisition of RailTerm, a rail company founded in Dorval, Quebec.
Through this acquisition, Siemens Mobility has expanded its expertise in railway systems maintenance, signaling, electrification and communications, contributing to the goal of 100% operational availability.
Challenges and an innovative vision
Quebec’s transportation industry is innovating, evolving and modernizing to meet environmental and logistical challenges. In Quebec, nearly 25% of GHGs are produced by cars and light trucks. Electrified transport and new propulsion sources, such as hydrogen, will play an important role in reducing these emissions.
In addition to new energy sources, Siemens Mobility offers MaaS (Mobility as a Service) solutions that meet the needs of growing cities. Integrated, flexible and secure platforms provide intelligent trip planning, reservations and ticketing, enabling a seamless passenger journey and giving operators tools to make the best decisions based on data analysis. This approach both improves the passenger experience in their intermodal journey and optimizes the services offered by operators. It also provides operators with useful data on passenger choices and capacity parameters, allowing them to make informed operational decisions.
To deliver these transport solutions, Siemens supports the potential of public‑private partnerships. When it comes to large investment projects, governments sometimes turn to public‑private partnerships, which offer significant economic benefits and a degree of predictability for taxpayers. On the public-transport side, Yves Desjardins-Siciliano is convinced that governments would benefit from asking the private sector for more investment.
“The current economic context should lead our public decision-makers to apply PPP principles to public transit projects. In addition to reducing the financial burden on taxpayers, PPPs greatly increase the likelihood of delivering projects on schedule, on budget and with a high-quality final product.”Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, La Presse, March 29, 2021
This approach also promotes healthy competition in the sector, which is essential to offer the best technologies at the best price to passengers, and to put our cities on the world stage as best-practice leaders in mobility.
With the means to match its ambitions, Siemens Mobility is actively working to offer the best solutions to its clients in Canada. The company plans to develop several new projects in the future and grow its presence in Quebec and Canada.
That is why Siemens Mobility Canada is pleased to be a Grand Partner of Impulsion MTL at a time when cities must make important decisions about the future of mobility on their territory.
On September 23 at 10:25 a.m., join us for a discussion between Yves Desjardins-Siciliano, CEO of Siemens Mobility Canada, and Sarah Houde, CEO of Propulsion Québec, on the mobility of the future.
Cover image credit: Marjorie Roy (Optique Photo)
This sponsored content was produced as part of the Impulsion MTL 2021 event – The international forum on vehicle fleet management.
