Proceedings 2002/2003 - IRSE

63
Migration to ERTMS on Existing Lines
Most people involved in railways have now heard of
ERTMS/ETCS, the European Rail Traffic Management
System and the part of it that is devoted to
train control (also called “contrôle-commande”),
namely the European Train Control System (ETCS)
Historically, railway lineside signalling has been
different in every country, and basically incompatible
across borders. Most of the main European
countries have for decades had their own ways, their
own rules and their own national suppliers (see
Figure 1). This includes eight main countries – in
alphabetical order, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy,
the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United Kingdom. Most other countries have used,
and usually still do use, signalling practices and
products from one or more of these countries. For
example, Spain uses products and systems
originating in France, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
This made crossing borders difficult technically and,
for that or other reasons, rare in fact, even if there
were a few exceptions.
1 ALSTOM Transport Information Solutions
Technical Meeting of the Institution
held at
The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London WC2
Tuesday 12th February 2003
The President, Mr P W Stanley, in the chair.
126 members and visitors were in attendance. It was proposed by Mr K Walter, seconded by Mr D Fenner, and carried that the
Minutes of the Technical Meeting held on 15th January 2003 be taken as read and they were signed by the President as a correct record.
The President welcomed Mr P Wiltshire, Past President, who was present at a meeting for the first time since his election as an
Honorary Fellow of the Institution amidst applause.
The President reminded members of the need to register to attend the Convention in Birmingham in May next year and in particular
to register quickly if they wished to attend the Conference on Train Control Systems that is to take place at the IEE on 19th February.
He then introduced Mr J Poré, of ALSTOM Transport Information Systems, and invited him to present his paper entitled “Migration
of ERTMS on Existing Lines”. Mr Poré, illustrating his presentation with the aid of a most comprehensive set of computer slides,
reviewed the present installed base of ATP systems, he then set out the advantages and disadvantages of adopting various
ERTMS/ETCS solutions and concluded with his vision of the future.
Following the presentation Messrs F Heijnen, Invensys; P Bassett, AEA; P Vandermark, Driver First GW; R Maton, Operator SVR: I
Harman, Union Railways; C Harrison, LRMHA; C Kessell, Centuria Comrail; the President; C Eaglen, affiliation not stated; and R
Barnard, Alstom, took part in the discussion.
Mr Poré dealt with the questions comprehensively and the President then proposed a vote of thanks and presented the speaker with
the commemorative plaque customarily awarded to authors of the London paper.
The President closed the meeting by announcing that the next meeting in London would be held on the 12th March 2003 when
Messrs Moens and Stokes will present a paper on “Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Signalling and Communications”.
Figure 1 – Existing Signalling Technologies
in Major European Countries
Jacques Poré 1
In fact, spoken language is also a major obstacle
to crossing European borders. No less than 11
national languages are spoken in the European
Community (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 – Language Barriers in Europe
Railway signalling suppliers traditionally worked in
close relationship with their customers and
developed very specific rules and products for them.
This is how our railways operate today.
The same philosophy applied to Automatic Train
Protection (ATP) systems. There are no less than 15
different ATP systems (including train stops) in
operation in Europe at the present time (see Figure
3). France, for instance, has three systems – the
“crocodile” train stop, KVB on the conventional
network and TVM on the high-speed lines. As a
result cross-border trains such as Eurostar and the
“Four Capitals” Thalys units are fitted with six and
eight different sets of on-board ATP equipment
respectively, which means a lot of equipment,
especially in the driver’s cab.
The concept of ERTMS/ETCS is that in future it will