ERTMS Regional is a simplified and low-cost variant of the

European Rail Traffic Management System The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the o ...

suitable for train control on lines with low traffic volumes. It is intended to reduce the amount of lineside and equipment required, thus reducing costs, increasing reliability and improving safety for track workers.

History

The ERTMS Regional project was started at the end of the 1990s under the name ETCS LC (Low Cost). In recent years, its development was pushed by the

Swedish Rail Administration , genre = , fate = , predecessor = Swedish State Railways , successor = Swedish Transport Administration , foundation = 1988 , founder = , defunct = 31 March 2010 , location_city ...

in cooperation with the UIC organization. Standardization reached a point in 2009 that the Swedish Rail Administration ordered the equipping of a pilot railway track on the 129-kilometer

West Dalarna Line The West Dalarna Line ( sv, Västerdalsbanan), is a long railway line between Malung and the Dala Line near Borlänge, in Dalarna County, Sweden. It has only freight traffic. History The oldest part of the line is Repbäcken–Björbo, opened 190 ...

between

Malung Malung is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Malung-Sälen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden, with 5,126 inhabitants as of 2010. Overview Malung is home to Malungs folk high school, Folkhögskola, two kilometers south of the town ...

and Repbäcken in Sweden. Test operation started in 2010, and it has been fully operational (ERTMS only) since February 2012. Unfortunately the high cost of equipping passenger trains with ERTMS caused cancellation of all passenger traffic on this line in 2011. There were plans to install it on two Swedish freight-only railways in 2012-2013, but that did not happen. The Swedish Rail Administration decided in 2014 not to install ERTMS Regional on any further railway at least before 2020, citing high and uncertain future development cost, risk of problems and lack of expertise, who need to focus on the coming installation on normal ERTMS level 2 on the mainlines. In 2017 ERTMS Regional trial test runs started in Italy, mainly on the line.

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI) is the Italian railway infrastructure manager, subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), a state-owned holding company. RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it provides signalling, maintenance and other ser ...

(RFI) plans to introduce this on several low traffic railways.

Characteristics

The ERTMS Regional standard does only describe the way-side signals that is modeled to be compatible with trains equipped with ETCS L3 train control systems. There is also an optional variant to allow trains with ETCS level 2 train control systems to access ERTMS Regional tracks. Unlike ETCS level 3 the ERTMS Regional scheme is not supposed to operate with moving blocks. Instead it uses radio-based interlocking to lower the amount of track-release signalling devices.{{cite web , title=Yet more ERTMS challenges ahead , publisher=

International Railway Journal The ''International Railway Journal'' (IRJ) is a monthly international trade magazine published by Simmons-Boardman Publishing in Falmouth, England. History Founded by Robert Lewis and ''Railway Age'' editor Luther Miller as the world's first ...

, url=http://www.railjournal.com/this-month/yet-more-ertms-challenges-ahead.html , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100502153804/http://www.railjournal.com/this-month/yet-more-ertms-challenges-ahead.html , archivedate=2010-05-02 The ERTMS Regional standard explicitly states that the track should not be equipped with any other automatic train protection system. Only the provisions of ERTMS Regional should be used for train protection / collision avoidance. The central element of ERTMS Regional is the specification on the Train Control Center (TCC). This computer system takes over the functionality of

Interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junction (rail), junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and Track (rail transpor ...

, ETCS Radio Block Center (RBC) as well as automatic planning and track management. All communication between ERTMS Regional track equipment and the trains is done with

GSM-R GSM-R, Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway or GSM-Railway is an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. A sub-system of European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS), it is use ...

. Track-side elements like

switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

derail A derail or derailer is a device used to prevent fouling (blocking or compromising) of a rail track (or collision with anything present on the track, such as a person, or a train) by unauthorized movements of trains or unattended rolling stock. ...

ers,

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

block signal Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...

moveable bridge A moveable bridge, or movable bridge, is a bridge that moves to allow passage for boats or barges. In American English, the term is synonymous with , and the latter is the common term, but drawbridge can be limited to the narrower, historical d ...

s are equipped with an Object Controller OC that connects directly to the Train Control Center. In opposite to other ERTMS variants, ERTMS Regional does not require GSM-R coverage everywhere. There is no mandatory automatic protection against collision with cars accidentally lost by other trains, or parked and forgotten. ERTMS Regional has a fairly low speed limit, and is meant for railways which today has no automatic train protection system, only manual supervision and optical signals. A decision was made in Sweden that passenger traffic is permitted only if there is automatic detection (by e.g.

track circuits A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind t ...

) of forgotten vehicles on the tracks meant for passenger trains at freight yards or similar places trains might park, and also that when shunting or similar activity has taken place, the next train must move very slowly in the concerned area, and the speed has been limited to 70 km/h on West Dalarna Line. In the manual system, the

train dispatcher A train dispatcher (US), rail traffic controller (Canada), train controller (Australia), train service controller (Singapore) or signaller (UK), is employed by a railroad to direct and facilitate the movement of trains over an assigned territory, ...

is assumed to see such forgotten vehicles, while with ERTMS Regional, the railway can be directed remotely. Because of need to further develop ERTMS Regional and unknown cost for that, Sweden will not use it on passenger railways for some years.

References

External links

ERTMS Regional project home at the UIC

ERTMS Regional newsletter
European Rail Traffic Management System

History

Characteristics

See also

References

External links