TasRail Menu

Real-time Rail Profiles

PublishedJul 07, 2014
Real-time Rail Profiles
With Oscar Corredor, Lucas Loss, and Felipe Barbosa - computer systems analysts for ART, the company contracted to support the implementation of TasRail’s new Train Control System

Oscar is Columbian and his two offsiders, Lucas and Felipe, are Brazilian.

"I went from Columbia to Brazil to work with them then I came here," Oscar says.

"We are finishing adapting the software system for TasRail’s Train Control System needs."

ART is the creator of the software the new Train Control System is using. The same software is currently being used in the US, Panama, Brazil, Nigeria and Mozambique – and now Tasmania.

Lucas and Felipe arrived in Launceston on 16 June. Oscar arrived more recently. The trio departs TasRail on 4 July and heads back to Brazil on Monday 7 July.

In a nutshell, Oscar and his team have been finding bugs in the system and ironing them out ahead of the TCS Pilot Program starting on July 14.

"Being on site makes things much faster because when we’re in Brazil we’re working with a 13-hour time difference so when you guys are asleep we’re working and when you’re working we’re asleep," Oscar says.

TasRail has chosen ART’s software because ART’s system is particularly well designed for railways that use a radio network.

This is the first time Oscar has been to Australia, let alone Tasmania.

"We’re all liking it. Even though we’re missing the World Cup," he says.

"Filipe and Lucas aren’t big football fans but I am. So it’s kind of hard getting up at 5am to watch the games. Columbia has never had a better World Cup... but I did get to go to the first match."

Oscar has lived in Canada for a year so he is coping with the recent freezing weather quite well. His colleagues come from a city that records 30 degree temperatures all year round but in fact, Lucas quite enjoys the cold.

"He says so anyway but one more weekend and he’ll change his mind."

The guys have spent a significant amount of their free time seeing the sights and enjoying the attractions Tasmania has to offer. They have been to Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art and "they didn’t like it but I did – it’s really crazy but I thought it was really awesome," Oscar says.

He likes Launceston. "It’s a small town. My hometown has 10 million residents. It’s not easy to go to a whole different country and I’ve been living in Brazil for well over a year. I will go back to Brazil for a short time and then re-turn to Columbia. I’m looking forward to that because I’m missing my family and friends."

Thank you for your hard work!

Latest Posts