The Gibela Engineering Research Chair at Stellenbosch University is a dynamic research group, sponsored by the Gibela Rail Consortium. Gibela has been contracted by the South African Government to manufacture, maintain and support 600 X’trapolis MEGA trains to renew the fleet of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.

The Chair aims to create a niche in monitoring applications and asset management technologies for the Gibela X’Trapolis Mega trains by combining the potential of sensors, data, models and analytics in digital services. The Chair strives to uphold a culture of academic excellence whilst remaining people centric, optimistic and future-focused to achieve impacts in local and international rail research.

The Faculty of Engineering at Stellenbosch University offers a versatile hub through which the Chair can link industry demand to cross-cutting engineering expertise. The parallel drivers of industry and academia springboards specialized projects and training for industry professionals and future engineers. These initiatives directly contribute to Gibela’s goal to deliver trains that offer increased safety, comfort, speed and reliability to rail commuters. Current projects focus on measurements, data handling and techniques to inform the state and behavior of X’trapolis Mega trainsets in operation – and how this information can be leveraged towards decision support.