A wheel that’s turning generates impulses; the number of passengers entering the station differs in the morning hours and at night; a vehicle travels along the track at a constantly varying speed; and a trackside signal linked to an interlocking changes multiple times per day, showing different aspects.
What do all these have in common?
The answer is: data.
Each layer of the infrastructure provides valuable numbers that could serve as a benchmark for validating the system under use and tell the story of a particular functionality behind the system. These numbers, if managed correctly, translate into a valuable source of information which could be used to infer high- or low-level insights from the systems and undertake actionable steps to improve them.
All systems are data
The examples given at the beginning of this article all tell one story. Data is a prevailing element whose importance is gradually increasing, and it is becoming the most important consideration in development and operational lifecycles. Since the 20th century and the development of computers, digital systems, and consequently interlocking and railway vehicles, data has become the new digital gold.

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