Tendering and project management for Austria federal railways internet on board

In 2015 Austria Federal Railways (ÖBB) commissioned Nomad Digital, a connectivity supplier which specializes in the transportation sector, with implementation of an IOB (Internet on board) solution in its Railjet fleet. This was only an initial step, as the ÖBB further planned to extend IOB to up to 900 trains and 2,000 buses – the largest project in the world at that time for provision of on-board connectivity for two means of transportation as part of a partnership agreement.

The challenge

The project’s challenge lay in the fact that both vehicle-related as well as land-related factors needed to be taken into consideration. So not “only” did WLAN need to be provided in trains, by the end of the project a complete entertainment package was also to be provided for passengers by means of content servers. In addition, the system had to be specified in such a way that it would be future-proof and be able to operate over the medium term and long term in terms of scalability and traffic volume.

Our service

The experts at Spirit in Projects provided support for the invitation to tender by preparing a requirements specification and service catalog. At the wish of the client Austrian Federal Railways, Spirit in Projects subsequently assumed overall program and project management for the contractor Nomad Digital and ensured the project was brought to a successful conclusion.

The benefits

The project was brought to a successful conclusion thanks to independent and methodologically sound management and a focus on customer value guided by a precise understanding of requirements.