Virtual twins applied from the earliest project phases could give railway owners, designers and funders a shared model for comparing options before works begin, if the approach SYSTRA and Dassault Systèmes describe moves from exploration into services offered to clients.
For railway and infrastructure owners planning new lines or rehabilitation programmes, including in Africa, such tools could become part of how options are tested and assets are managed over their lifecycle, should the digital services the two companies are exploring reach those markets.
Photo - SYSTRA
SYSTRA and Dassault Systèmes announced a technological collaboration in digital engineering, centred on a new generation of virtual twins for rail and infrastructure. SYSTRA announced the collaboration on 24 September 2026, during InnoTrans 2026, and says the two companies are combining their expertise to explore new digital services applied to the rail and infrastructure sector.
The companies say virtual twins open up new capabilities to design, simulate, test, optimise and manage infrastructure throughout its lifecycle. According to SYSTRA, Dassault Systèmes’ 3D UNIV+RSES make it possible to connect virtual twins to one another and to their environment by combining real-world data, models and AI, so that teams can experiment, learn and innovate before taking action in the real world.
The initiative is intended to help the rail sector move from analyses that are often still fragmented towards more integrated environments that bring together the data, models and expertise of the various stakeholders. SYSTRA says the approach should allow teams, from the earliest project phases, to explore and assess different options, anticipate their impacts and make better-informed, more collaborative decisions.
Prisca Flattot, Senior Vice President Technical & Operational Performance, SYSTRA, said: “The virtual twin is a powerful tool for better design, better decision-making, and supporting our clients throughout the lifecycle of their assets. With Dassault Systèmes, we want to accelerate the development of high value-added digital services for infrastructure that is even safer, more reliable, and more sustainable.”
Corinne Bulota, Vice President, Infrastructure, Energy, Materials and Industry, Dassault Systèmes, said: “The future of infrastructure will be built at the intersection of industry expertise and virtual worlds. With 3D UNIV+RSES, Dassault Systèmes is pioneering a new class of world representation, combining modelling, simulation, real-world data and scientific AI – an AI that does not merely guess at the world, but truly understands it. This is the aim of our collaboration with SYSTRA: to enable engineers to experiment, learn and innovate before taking action in the real world, and to transform what is possible in the design of tomorrow’s infrastructure.”
SYSTRA says the two companies are already working on the development of digital approaches for infrastructure, at a time when data control, digital trust and technological sovereignty are becoming key issues for critical infrastructure and for public and private stakeholders.
