Leading Expert Esa Mäkelä

Esa Mäkelä is a multidisciplinary expert on rolling stock and related technologies with such extensive experience and expertise that it would require a separate appendix to his career story. At Welado, Esa was attracted by an interesting rolling stock project, and his main assignment at the beginning will be on a contract for Funkwerk's train radios, where Esa believes he will again learn something new - and share his knowledge with other Welado experts.

What got you into the industry?

Coincidence has guided my own career. At Valmet Corporation, a colleague tipped me off that my skills were needed at Aplicom. Since Valmet had nothing new to offer me at the time, I applied and got the job. From Aplicom I moved to Indagon, where I was attracted by my interest in joining the Nokia spin-off. There, around 2005, I got involved in rail transport, when VR Group asked me about positioning needs. I also became the main contact for rail transport. The interesting position of Rolling Stock and Technology Manager that opened up at VR Transpoint was a natural extension for me, as rail transport already played a significant role in my expertise.

At VR Group, I again got pretty much everything I was interested in and needed to do done, as I was involved in the procurement of locomotives and freight wagons and was involved in the procurement of new, up-to-date solutions for all the technologies used at Transpoint. In most of these projects, I was in the lead or otherwise involved.

About six years ago, I noticed that WSP was looking for a telematics team leader, but they had other plans for me. Just over five years ago, I became the first non-Swedish expert on WSP's Nordic Rail Advisor. The work at WSP was interesting, but I didn't get to work on a rolling stock project that interested me. It was at this time that Jan-Paul Andersson, CEO of Welado STHK, my former supervisor at WSP NRA, had an interesting assignment to offer me from Welado.

Throughout my career, interesting assignments and tasks have always been the main source of my motivation and enthusiasm. Having experienced a wide range of projects, this may become even more important as you get older.

How did your expertise come about?

I got my master’s degree from the Tampere University of Technology’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1998, majoring in hydraulics and machine automation, with minors in production and safety engineering. After all these years, these studies have probably been the most relevant to my career at Tampere University of Technology.

During my career, I have gained experience in a wide range of areas, including heavy engineering and automation design, electronics design in the technology industry, software design, vehicle and rail rolling stock installation, software services production, technical support, product management and corporate management teamwork. In the rail sector, experience has been gained in rolling stock, its operation and maintenance, rail technologies (e.g. voice communication, wagons scales, brake testing, handheld terminals and active hearing protection), rolling stock and technology procurement, logistics services, safety and risk management.

During the last five years as a consultant, I have also become familiar with ETCS issues and working in the ERTMS Users Group.

Main areas of expertise

My work with the railway fleet started with VR Group's positioning tests around 2005. At the beginning, I was responsible for the supply of positioning equipment for the rolling stock on the supplier's side. At VR Transpoint I was responsible for about 8000 freight wagons, and tasks related to their operation, maintenance and development. In the Sr3 (Siemens Vectron) project I was involved in the delivery phase. I was involved in the procurement team of Dr19 diesel locomotives as well as InnoWagon freight wagons. Various issues related to rolling stock have been mandated as consultants during the consultancy period.

I have been involved with positioning equipment since 1999: first satellite positioning and satellite positioning augmentation, then inertial and network positioning, and later other positioning technologies such as radar and other radio technologies. The experience gained in the field of positioning has been very broad in terms of experience with the various new technologies.

Data transmission and voice communication. Data transmission is part of the positioning solution, and that's what I've been involved with since 1999, and later some of the network side stuff. At VR Transpoint, I pushed VIRVE up, and we were the first unit to fully use VIRVE on Finnish railways. Now I'm involved in a train radio retrofit project at Welado.

Technologies. Technology development projects have played a major role throughout his career in the paper machinery and technology industry, as well as at VR and the Digirata program. The projects have been very diverse, ranging from idea refinement and product development projects in fleet movement monitoring to technology exploitation and the Digirail positioning pilot.

In-depth expertise is also available in brake testing devices and wagon scales, technical equipment used by shunting workers, such as active ear protectors, handheld terminals and gas analysers.

EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) was something I was responsible for from the summer of 1997 until 2014, when I wrote my thesis. Even since then, my expertise has been occasionally called upon in this area. In total, I have been actively involved in EMC for 17 years, but 28 years in total.

I have been working at the customer interface since the turn of the millennium, with the exception of my time at VR Group, when I worked on the buyer's side. I have been responsible for the sale of technology solutions, including positioning used by VR Group, consultancy side framework agreements, including Metropolitan Area Transport’s METKA (program to improve the capacity and reliability of Helsinki metro) and rolling stock framework agreements and related sales work, and on the purchasing side I have been in rolling stock procurement teams for VR Group, and fully responsible for TETRA radio procurement, wagon scale procurement and other technology procurements.

What kind of services can you offer customers? What is your speciality?

At Welado, I am a leading expert in my area of expertise, with the aim of involving other Welado experts in projects. The services are mainly expert services, provided for a variety of needs. For example, in the ongoing GSM-R retrofit project, I assist the customer in the documentation and acceptance of the solution for railway use. At Finnish Digirail program, I bring expertise in the areas of positioning, train integrity monitoring and voice communication, as well as in rolling stock technical issues, where I can bring my experience to bear in terms of what should be done and what should be considered. In addition, the work involves creating documentation for a variety of needs, from high-level issues to very detailed information. I am also happy to draw on my extensive knowledge of various equipment and technology acquisitions.

What made you decide to work for Welado?

I was quite happy with my previous employer, but the most important thing was missing, which was a job that really interested me. Jan-Paul knew about my expertise and that I was open to a new assignment related to railway rolling stock. Everything fell into place, and now I am working at Welado on an interesting project for Funkwerk.

How does Welado as a platform support expertise that is relevant to you?

The opportunity to work on interesting assignments and thus develop myself. Here I can also build a team of experts to meet our clients' future needs.

Why does Welado succeed in the international rail market?

On the radio side, the transition from GSM-R to the new radio technology will take place in the coming years. I already have experience of one such change, when Finland moved from GSM-R to TETRA technology and the VIRVE network. There will be more migrations from GSM-R to the new technology when FRMCS is ready for deployment. In addition, my knowledge of ETCS and especially of the new technologies associated with it will certainly be needed in the future not only in Finland but also in other countries.

There will also be a switch from legacy train control systems to ETCS or it’s upgrade to newer ETCS version, as in Finland, where JKV is being replaced by ETCS. Together with my Swedish colleagues, we are already able to offer our expertise in these areas. Hopefully, in the future, we will also be able to involve more people from Finland in these projects. There is also a lot of work to be done in the transition of the track maintenance fleet to ETCS.

What has been your most memorable project?

One of the most memorable is the delivery of a prisoner tracking system to the 26 prisons of the Criminal Sanctions Agency, in partnership with TeliaSonera. It was a slightly different project overall. Another memorable project was the differential positioning solution I sold and delivered to VR Group, which they are still using 15 years after delivery. And perhaps the most memorable and in a class of its own is the DrX project, which was a project of its own size, where I was able to procure new diesel locomotives for VR Group as part of VR's procurement project team.

Also working in the EUG's LWG (Localization working group), when I was able to experience and influence the development of EU railway legislation. Of course, there have been many other projects over the years, such as other VR Group’s procurement and rolling stock development projects.

Do you have a rolling stock, technology or procurement project where you need Esa's expertise? Contact us!

Esa Mäkelä

+358 40 163 4900

esa.makela (at) welado.fi