Jun 23, 2013—The Swedish Transport Administration, known as Trafikverket, oversees the country's state-owned 13,000-kilometer (8,077-mile) network of trains and track. Keeping its heavily used mechanical equipment from breaking was a formidable challenge. The Swedish railway operates 150 detector stations to monitor wheel damage and other problems on railway vehicles (or wagons), but the system could only issue a general alarm and could not identify individual vehicles. If a problem was detected, the train would have to stop at the next station, so the driver could visually check and touch the wheels to ascertain if any were hot. The government agency knew that preventative maintenance was key to providing uninterrupted service and controlling costs, so it developed a radio frequency identification solution to monitor the condition of wheels, axles and other equipment.