Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

262 SESSION IV
trains. CARAT will also be able to obtain accurate
information on train locations, and transmission of
information from the trains to the wayside equipment
will make it possible to create moving blocks.
Advanced Train Administration and Communications
System (ATACS) uses radio telecommunications, to
verify that the system is safe for track maintenance
personnel.
Train Traffic Control requires full and continuous
knowledge of the train operations. In a conventional
traffic control system, station use telephone
communications to establish a route, but this process is
too slow and inefficient for modern rail traffic volumes.
Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) provides the traffic
control centre with information on the situation of all
track sections and permits the centre to control train
routes directly. The heart of the centre is a number
of centralized display and control panels, connected
to stations and train by various types of equipments:
radio equipment, command telephones, train schedule
recorders, train number display unit, etc. This already
computerized using Programmed Route Control (PRC)
system.
The Shinkansen Computer aided Traffic Control System
(COMTRAC) has a number of advanced function,
including route control, traffic coordination, rolling
stock management, and passenger information service.
JR East improved the COMTRAC system in 1998 when
it opened the Hokuriku Shinkansen. This system is
called Computerized Safety Maintenance and Operation
Systems for Shinkansen (COSMOS) and integrates
existing COMTRAC function with traffic planning,
traffic administration, maintenance equipment control,
and rolling stock control.
The Autonomous decentralized Transport Operation
System (ATOS), a new and very powerful traffic control
system is being implemented for the Tokyo region to
control 17 track section, 390 stations, and 6200 daily
train operations. The system first entered service in 1996
on JR East’s Chuo Line. ATOS and COSMOS are very
similar; ATOS began first, but efforts were focused on
COSMOS as the shinkansen control system.
Before the introduction of train radio, a crew member
would have to use a trackside railway telephone to call the
control centre if an accident occurred outside a station.
Today, the train crew can communicate immediately
with the control centre using the train radio. There
are narrow-gauge train radio communications and
shinkansen radio communications. Railways use duplex,
semi-duplex, and simplex radio telecommunications
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
for non-shinkansen line. Duplex is used on section
with heavy traffic, semi-duplex is used on high-priority
sections with less dense traffic, and simplex is used on
other track sections. Shinkansen radio communications
supported by leaky coaxial (LCX) cables were laid first
along the full length of both the Tohoku Shinkansen
and Joetsu Shinkansen to transmit data and messages
to and from command and track telephones, and onboard
public telephone. The supported LCX cable is
run along the noise control barrier beside the track,
with suitable size slots cut into the cable to allow the
signal to leak out. (Takashige, 2005)
The RTRI has developed an urgent earthquake
detection and alarm system (UREDAS) mainly for
shinkansen and put it into practical use. It was a new
method to predict seismic source parameters. This
method operated based on the P-wave by utilizing the
latest knowledge in seismology and other scientific
field. UREDAS also can estimate the magnitude and
the distance to the epicenter from the maximum
amplitude and the amplitude increasing rate of the
initial P-wave. RTRI has developed a seismograph for
the new system by applying the new method to detect
seismic source parameters. A built-in PC makes the
seismograph compact, light weight and enables parallel
processing with remote operation in a real time. This
makes it possible to use the seismograph at observations
point in wayside substations. The Japan Meteorological
Agency (JMA) has a plan to measure the seismic waves
near the epicenter at 180 observation points across
the country and distributed the information on the
epicenter, magnitude, main shock arrival time and
predicted seismic intensity, which is called now-cast
earthquake information, before the main shock arrives.
The now-cast information will be distributed when
the P-wave has arrived at the observation point nearest
the epicenter and repeatedly thereafter at certain time
intervals. (Ashiya, 2002)
Magnetically-levitated transport system (Maglev,
linear motor cars)
The superconducting magnetically-levitated transport
system (Maglev, linear motor cars) has come into the
limelight as a next generation high speed and low noise
transport system. Based on the results of research and
development on the Miyazaki Maglev Test Track, the
system is now subject to vehicle running tests on the
Yamanashi Maglev Test Line. The system has been
evaluated as “technologically feasible” by the committee
for the evaluation of practical technologies of Maglev,
Ministry of Transport, and is now in long term
durability performance verification tests.