2022.11.10

The Transport Innovation Award, a top accolade for the transport industry in Hungary, was presented for the fourth time. The prize was awarded by a panel of independent experts to Dr. Gergely Suba and Tamás Pecsérke, the heads of our company's development department, for the development and introduction of the PRORIS product range, designed to guarantee the safety of railway lines.

The Transport Innovation Award was founded in 2019 by the National Toll Payment Services Ltd. (NÚSZ Zrt.) and the Transport Science Association (KTE). The aim of the award is to support young professionals working in the field of transport development, to encourage forward-looking ideas, innovative initiatives and scientific concepts related to the development of the transport sector, and to promote the education and appreciation of the rising generation of the transport sector.

The top award of the transport professionals was presented on the evening of 10 November 2022 at a ceremony by Dr. Alex Bozóky, CEO of NÚSZ Zrt. to Dr. Gergely Suba and Tamás Pecsérke, heads of the development department of Prolan Zrt.

The development, taking more than 5 years and employing 60 engineers, is a major milestone for a leading international companies. The company Prolan Irányítástechnikai Zrt., Budakalász, that develops industrial automation solutions for utilities and railway companies, has been committed to its own products and systems since the beginning in 1990. This has led it to build up a significant hardware and software development capacity over the past decades and to become a competence centre for safety-critical developments of the highest professional standard, the so-called SIL4 level. In addition to its development activities, the company also has its own electronics production, which is how its products have become fully the results of Hungarian industry, embodying the added value of Hungarian engineering, which is able to compete with the product range of international companies in terms of both knowledge and pricing.

PRORIS product range

The purpose of the safety devices is to guarantee the safe and regular running of trains in accordance with the traffic rules. The development of the PRORIS range of signalling equipment is based on domestic railway demands and has been designed to meet the requirements of railway companies operating in Hungary. Its innovation lies, among other things, in the fact that it is the first Hungarian-developed product family that can be easily integrated into existing, operational central traffic management systems.  It is widely applicable and easy to parameterise, including railway companies.  The latter is a particular demand from rail infrastructure operators, something that was not possible with previously available technologies and business models.

The advanced technologies used in the development (model-driven development, multi-level simulation systems, the application of safety microelectronics common in modern automotive engineering) have led to a reduction in development times and the application of related modern safety and reliability procedures resulted in higher safety. This enables the PRORIS product range to ensure the safety of railway lines and rail traffic in a modern and economical way. This means, in particular, that, when installed, remote control of the railway line can be achieved without any additional investment, and that maintenance can be carried out by railway company specialists, who can acquire the necessary knowledge, thanks to the innovative diagnostic system.

Prolan's objective was to meet the long-standing needs and desires of Hungarian railway professionals, thus attracting domestic professionals. The purpose and effectiveness of the development, launched in close partnership with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, was already known within the professional community, as it had already been installed as signalling equipment at Gyál and Babócsa stations over the past two years, and later in the newly built, state-of-the-art East-West Gate container terminal in Lichteslitz.

By developing and introducing signalling equipment already installed in three Hungarian railway stations, developers have provided a solution to the existing and future needs of the Hungarian railways, which will significantly improve the predictability, safety and efficiency of rail transport through the installation of cost-effective, yet modern equipment.