Proceedings 2002/2003 - IRSE

72
Technical Meeting of the Institution
held at
The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London WC2
Tuesday 12th March 2003
The President, Mr P W Stanley, in the chair.
116 members and visitors were in attendance. It was proposed by Mr F Heijnen, seconded by Mr P Bassett, and carried that the
Minutes of the Technical Meeting held on 12th February 2003 be taken as read and they were signed by the President as a correct record.
The President welcomed Mr D Singh, WRSL, who was present at a meeting for the first time since his election to membership of the
Institution amidst applause.
The President introduced Mr G Moens, of Rail Link Engineering, and Mr R Stokes, of Union Railways, and invited them to present their
paper entitled “CTRL Signalling and Communications”. In making the presentation, which Messrs Stokes and Moens did jointly, they
briefly explained the history of the development of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and then described the new signalling and communication
facilities to be provided, as a foretaste of what members should see as part of the 2003 Convention programme later this year.
Following the presentation Messrs P Bassett, AEAT; C Harrison, LRMHA; D McKeown, Independent Consultant; I Harman, Union
Railways; P Duggan, WSRL; J Poré, Alstom; and J Lester, Eurostar, took part in the discussion.
The presenters dealt with the questions comprehensively and Mr C H Porter then proposed a vote of thanks. The President
presented the speakers with the commemorative plaque customarily awarded to authors of the London paper.
He then reminded members of the need to register to attend the Convention in Birmingham in May and in particular to register
quickly if they wished to attend the technical visit to AEA Technology Derby on 28th/29th March.
The President closed the meeting by announcing that the next meeting in London would be the Annual General Meeting to be held on
the 25th April 2003 when the incoming President will deliver his Presidential Address and this will be followed by the Members’ Dinner
at the Savoy Hotel.
CTRL Signalling and Communications
Gilbert Moens (Fellow) 1 and Richard Stokes (Fellow) 2
INTRODUCTION
This paper takes forward the story of the CTRL
signalling from the description presented to the
Institution in December 1999, and describes the key
features of the installation and the technical features
of the signalling.
Section One of the route, between the boundary
with the Eurotunnel Railway and the existing
Chatham main line at Fawkham Junction, is
scheduled to open in the autumn of this year and the
second section, to London St Pancras, in 2007.
The route forms part of the European TEN network
and it is worth reflecting that when it and the other
high-speed line projects either recently completed or
in progress are finished a new high-speed railway
will have been built from London to Marseilles,
Frankfurt and Amsterdam as well as to Paris and
Brussels.
THE ROUTE ITSELF
The CTRL is a double track line designed, unlike
the French LGV network, to handle not only highspeed
passenger trains but also high-speed
commuter operations (the Reserved Domestic
Operator), and also to be capable of carrying freight
trains (see Figure 1). Line speeds are 230 km/h from
St Pancras to the junction with the Waterloo
connection at Southfleet, and thence 300 km/h to
the connection with Eurotunnel. Connections are to
be provided at Ebbsfleet to the existing North Kent
lines, and to and from the “classic” line at Ashford to
serve Ashford International station.
The route is electrified on the 25-0-25kV system
with auto-transformers provided at approximately
1 Rail Link Engineering
2 Union Railways
5 km intervals to limit the effects of electrical interference
from the traction system on adjacent
railways and statutory undertakings such as British
Telecom and the Highways Agency.
The control centre for the route, covering both
signalling and the traction power supply, is located
in the existing Ashford signalling centre that controls
the classic line network in Kent and also the North
Kent area replacing the former power signal box at
Dartford.
SIGNALLING PRINCIPLES
This section is a brief summary of the arrangements
installed. A more detailed description was
given to the Institution in the December 1999 paper.
The system used on the CTRL is a fixed block
continuous transmission system (TVM 430) which
meets the functionality of the ETCS level two specification.
The system is already in use and proven on
the high-speed lines in France and Belgium, and
also on the Eurotunnel railway.
Operationally, the same basic rules are applied as
on the high-speed lines on the Continent. Some
minor changes have been put in place to meet the
needs of a mixed traffic line. However, the key
approach is that train crews should not have to
reflect on which part of the TEN network they are
operating, particularly in an emergency situation.
The use of stop-and-proceed rules at block
section markers which are not either route origin
markers or those protecting tunnels, viaducts neutral
sections etc, is also applied, and such movements
are made under continuous ATP supervision.
Shunt markers have also been provided at
specific locations where there is a need for
turn-back movements of engineering trains.