From infrastructure data to operational value:
STIB’s journey to an operational digital twin

“Chi va piano, va sano e va lontano,” says an Italian proverb: slow and steady wins the race. For Cossimo Albanese, Head of Digital Transformation for the Mapping Department within the Infrastructure Divisions at STIB, the phrase perfectly reflects how transformation should be approached: methodically, consistently, and without rushing. 

Founded in 1954, the Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company (STIB) employs more than 10,000 people. Every day, they operate and maintain a dense network of trams, buses, and metro lines. In 2025 alone, the network recorded 391 million journeys and representing 51,3 million kilometres travelled safely across the Belgian capital. 

STIB is the public transport operator for the Brussels-Capital Region and one of the city’s most critical public service organisations. In 2025, it recorded 396.1 million journeys, operated 51.3 million kilometres across its bus, tram, and metro network, and relied on more than 10,500 employees to keep Brussels moving every day. 

Behind this operational performance, however, lay a major challenge: improving collaboration between design, operations, and maintenance teams through reliable, shared information. 

“We have engineering teams designing the infrastructure and several field competence centres maintaining it. The goal of the digital transformation launched in 2019 is to truly make them work together,” explains Cossimo Albanese. 

Like many large organisations, STIB’s departments traditionally operated with their own tools and methods. As a result, information was scattered, difficult to retrieve, and sometimes interpreted differently depending on the team. 

STIB therefore needed to create a shared framework capable of centralising reliable, traceable, and reusable information throughout the entire lifecycle of its infrastructure — from design to maintenance. 

ARKANCE supported STIB at several levels: 

• Defining business needs and requirements 

• Structuring shared models and libraries 

• Implementing workflows 

• Supporting teams in adopting new ways of working 

A first use case: Overhead line systems

Rather than transforming the entire organisation at once, STIB chose a gradual approach based on concrete use cases. 

The first project focused on overhead line systems, involving more than 35,000 documented and enriched assets. 

To support this new data management approach, STIB implemented a collaborative Common Data Environment (CDE) integrating several complementary solutions. 

Project teams share information through Autodesk Forma (formerly Autodesk Construction Cloud), enabling structured collaboration between departments. Workflows were also aligned with ISO 19650 standards to ensure consistent information management throughout the project lifecycle. 

Metadata-enriched assets are centralised in Trimble Quadri, while deliverables are made accessible in the field through Trimble Connect. 

Towards more predictive maintenance

Once structured and consolidated, this data opens the door to entirely new use cases. 

Thanks to a centralised library of metadata-enriched assets, STIB is progressively improving infrastructure governance and asset management. 

The long-term objective is clear: move toward more predictive and preventive maintenance to reduce network disruptions while improving service quality for passengers. 

But once again, progress is being made step by step. “2026 will be a pivotal year,” says Cossimo Albanese. 

Accelerating adoption during the pandemic

A major turning point had already occurred in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout this period, STIB teams remained operational across all levels, both in the office and on the ground, to ensure the continuity of public transport services in the capital. Training sessions for the new tools, initially planned in person, had to be delivered remotely for all professions involved: designers, maintenance technicians, data stewards, and data officers. 

ARKANCE supported both deployment and user adoption despite the constraints imposed by the health crisis. 

“The fact that everyone had to become familiar with remote meetings accelerated the adoption of digital tools. It was a challenge, especially given the diversity of profiles, but good practices were implemented quickly,” observes Cossimo Albanese. 

The next step: The digital twin

Today, STIB continues its transformation through the gradual development of its digital twin. 

After the overhead line systems, railway systems have already been integrated, representing: 

• 330 kilometers of tracks 

• More than 37,000 additional assets 

Signalling and energy systems still need to be consolidated. 

Ultimately, this digital twin will support the introduction of new technologies, including the new CBTC (Communication-Based Train Control) signalling system, which is currently being deployed across the metro, while further improving infrastructure management and network safety. 

“We are aiming for 2027. It is important to prepare people and clearly demonstrate the purpose behind the transformation,” explains Cossimo Albanese.