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Issue 6 2006, Past issues / 28 November 2006 /
Though the Greek Railway Network is located far off Central Europe, ERGOSE S.A.1 is speeding up the efforts to comply with the interoperability requirements set by the European Community to facilitate unhindered, at least by technical barriers, cross-border operations at a European level and to introduce the technological evolutions of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) to the Greek Railway Network.
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Issue 5 2006, Past issues / 15 September 2006 /
The goal of the Bothnia line in northern Sweden is to create a railway of national importance and which will be an integrated part of the European railway network. After seven years of construction, the project has reached the halfway point and could one day form the first phase of a new line all the way to Finland.
The existing trunk line section in the region is more than 100 years old and was, for defense reasons (i.e. the Russian bear threat), located approximately 40km off the coast. The old line has become unattractive for passenger traffic and is today used as a heavy load freight line. It has now reached it’s capacity limit, and as such become gradually less competitive. The curves and slopes of the old line prevent access of fast heavy freight trains.
The Bothnia line will enhance the efficiency of the whole transportation system to and from the northern half of Sweden for freight traffic, contribute to regional cooperation and balance through the introduction of passenger traffic in the densely populated coastal areas and bring environmental benefits by transferring transport work from road traffic. In the future, the project also opens up possibilities for transport exchange with western Russia. (more…)
Issue 4 2006, Past issues / 28 July 2006 /
At the beginning of the 1990s, and due to the occurrence of some heavy accidents, ÖBB began to look for a new train protection system to fit the requirements of an increased traffic capacity on the lines and as a result of this, the necessity to increase safety on the whole network of ÖBB. Subsequently, ÖBB started evaluating different products existing on the market.
At this time, the system development of ERTMS/ETCS had started but no products where available. As a future member of the European Union, Austria was invited and forced by the Commission to participate in the development process of ERTMS/ETCS.
The Hungarian State Railways, MÁV Co, and ÖBB – as possible future users of the new system – together with the industry partners Alcatel Austria, Ansaldo, Alstom, CSEE Transport and ARSENAL research, as an independent body, first started operational trials of an ETCS Level 1 system in Europe in 1999 on a section of the Vienna-Budapest line covering sections in Hungary and Austria. The successful finalisation of those operational tests consequently lead to a project to install ETCS Level 1 on the complete Vienna-Budapest line. The Austrian part of the project for the 67km line section from Vienna to the Hungarian boarder station Hegyeshalom started in 2001 and the implementation was finished in 2005. The ETCS system is interfaced with three different kinds of interlocking (two type relay-interlocking and one type electronic interlocking), within the project the ETCS system has been installed on 13 double traction locomotives of the type 1116 (Taurus). (more…)
Issue 3 2006, Past issues / 31 May 2006 /
The Swedish government has clearly indicated its commitment to railways as one of the most important means of transportation for the future. As a consequence, Banverket has been provided with resources to carry out an enhancement program needed to fulfil the transport policy objectives.
Banverket has the responsibility to develop the railway system with the objective to fulfil primary customer needs such as; increased availability, higher capacity, improved safety and better cost-efficiency.All activities shall be carried out within the scope of lowering environmental impact and stimulating regional area development.
The EU has through directives and technical standards for interoperability requiring the development of a common and harmonised railway train control system, ERTMS, to be implemented on TEN railway networks in Europe. Sweden has accordingly implemented these requirements in a new national railway legislation and also extended the application of the law to cover, not only the TEN lines, but the complete railway network in Sweden.
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Issue 1 2006, Past issues / 14 February 2006 /
European Railway Review has previously featured articles which have dealt with the in-depth technical nature of GSM-R1. In this report, Paul Jenkins summarises the progress made by Network Rail, the national owner and operator of the railway in the UK, and outline the next steps being taken to implement the system.
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Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 3 November 2005 /
The Euro is not sufficient to unite Europe: an international railways system is needed to sweep away the borders between the different States by overcoming technological barriers and to compete with air, inland-water and road transport. (more…)
Issue 4 2005, Past issues / 3 November 2005 /
My last report in European Railway Review was in Issue 2 2004, when my focus was on the progress of the development and the implementation of GSM-R in Europe. At that stage, GSM-R implementation had started or was ongoing in several countries. In some of the early implementing railways, GSM-R was replacing the existing analogue radio system. Several railways had started the tendering process or even first implementations on selected lines. (more…)
Issue 2 2005, Past issues / 31 May 2005 /
During their historical development, the railways in Europe have adopted their own technical standards and operating rules according to national requirements. As a result, the European railways use different train control systems (INDUSI, KVB, LZB, TVM, ATB etc.) and have different warning distances (400m to 6,000m). This situation constitutes a serious obstacle for interoperable high speed and conventional trains. To overcome this obstacle, the ERTMS/ETCS standard European train control system was developed.
The ‘Specifications for the braking deceleration of trains for ETCS/ERTMS’ Project aims to ensure the interoperability as defined in Directives 96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC with respect to interoperability of the trans-European high speed and conventional rail system.
Currently, for virtually all trains in Europe operating at up to 200km/h, the only information available for the quantitative description of the braking performance is the braked weight percentage. The braked weight is usually determined empirically on the basis of stopping distances obtained in tests (according to UIC Leaflet 544-1).
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