site.btaEU Project Aims to Set in Place Harmonized European Railway Diagnostics. A Bulgarian Woman Leads the Project

Several European railway operators, vehicle keepers and railway supplier have pooled efforts to make their vehicle and infrastructure monitoring systems “talk to each other”. The purpose is to make sure trains across Europe are safe, are on time and spend as little time as possible in maintenance facilities, project leader Dr. techn. Emilia Andreeva-Moschen said in a BTA interview. She was born and trained in Bulgaria, and then went on to pursue further training and a career in Austria, which she now calls home.

Until recently, Emilia Andreeva-Moschen was Managing Director of ÖBB Technical Services, the technical backbone for vehicles of the ÖBB Holding company which includes the Austrian passenger and cargo railways, and Austrian railway infrastructure. She has moved upward to the position of Senior Advisor Rolling Stock in ÖBB Holding and this put her at the helm of the EU-backed project for Harmonized European Railway Diagnostics.

She told BTA that she was interested because it was a Europe-wide endeavor and she is a big proponent of all things Europe.

Some of the participants in the project are the rail operators of Austria, Germany (DB), of Switzerland (SBB), of France (SNCF), Italy (RFI) and Spain (ADIF), plus producers of vehicle and infrastructure equipment as well as railway supplier like Voest Alpine and Mermec. The project aims to improve reliability, availability, and proactive maintenance, ensure spares on stock, minimize stay in service facilities, and optimize the planning of the fleet. “For that, the railway operators need a standardized layer of data exchange,” Andreeva-Moschen explained.

The project is part of Europe’s Rail System Pillar.

Andreeva-Moschen says she is passionate about trains and has been so since her days at the Graz University of applied Sciences where she was Head of Department “Automotive and Railway Engineering” and Professor of Measurement Technology and Signal Processing. There was a Siemens facility next door, and she could see all the train bogies and wheel sets from her window. She “tasted train blood” when her university started doing joint projects with Siemens.

She has also worked with Bombardier/Alstom as Director Drives: she joined them at a moment when they were one of the biggest producers of railway vehicles.

Asked if she has a specific interest in trains career-wise, she said she does but more than that, she said, “my passion is to take things further and open up new horizons in any area”.

“Making a career was not a battle with somebody else but with myself because the high own standards I had to meet,” she adds.

Women in the engineering world

Another thing she is passionate about is helping advance women in the world of engineering and technology. 

Asked if being a Bulgarian was ever a factor in her career, she said “never”. “But being a woman was a big factor,” she added. She meant in the sense that women had to work twice as hard as men. She has a whole catalogue of anecdotes about that from her first steps as a very young female engineer in a men dominated automation industry. 

“Attracting more women in the technical careers starts with the right format and content of the job adverts: flexibility of working hours, option to work from home and others that would make a work-life balance easier, as well as sustainability and clear commitment to supporting female carrier paths”, she said.

Emilia Andreeva-Moschen is thrilled that women in business are beginning to network. “Women are beginning to organize themselves and that is terrific, impressive!” she said.

She remembers with glee a yearly meeting with other business women, an event organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Vienna and Lower Austria, when one of the speakers said that today every 3rd company in Austria is led or owned by a woman! 

Bulgaria and its trains

Emilia Andreeva-Moschen is not particularly eager to discuss the Bulgarian railways and said she last rode a train in Bulgaria when she was a child.  

In her capacity as EC advisor for railway project, however, she has extensive knowledge and says, "The European Commission provides strong support to rail transport across Europe and my observation as an expert is that unfortunately, Bulgaria fails to take advantage of the available opportunities as other countries do."  

Developing and improving the Bulgarian railway system will boost the Bulgarian industry and make the country much more attractive for business and tourism, she said.