signalling and telecommunications supplement 2012
TRANSCRIPT
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SUPPLEMENT
European Railway Review
www.europeanrailwayreview.com Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
01
SPONSORS
SIGNALLING &TELECOMMUNICATIONS
openETCS:Applying ‘Open
Proofs’ to EuropeanTrain ControlKlaus-Rüdiger Hase,
Manager of ETCS On-Board Systems, DB Netz AG
ERTMS:Global dimensions,
global challengesEmmanuel Brutin,
Senior Public Affairs Manager, UNIFE
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Where we are coming from
Europe’s railways have developed over the last
150 years within national boundaries, resultingin a variety of different signalling and train
control systems, which hamper cross-border
traffic (see Figure 1 on page 3). The European
Union has decided to improve interoperability
for the railway sector. Therefore the European
Tra in Con tro l System (ET CS) as part of the
European Rail Traffic Management System
(ERTMS) is intended to replace almost all
national legacy mainline signalling and
train control systems all across Europe. ETCS
consists of infrastructure components and on-
board units (OBU). A System Requirement
Specification (SRS, actual Version: 2.3.0d)
has been cooperatively created mainly
by six major European railway signalling
manufacturers. Those firms have formed an
association called UNISIG1
to manage andcoordinate these activities in close cooperation
with the EU Commission and the bodies of
railway operators. Beginning with the 3rd
version of the SRS, this document has
been published by the European Railway
Agency (ERA), therefore in the ‘public domain’
and will be mandatory by 2015 for all new infra-
structure and train borne signalling and train
control equipment.
For the on-board part of the ETCS equip-
ment, the degree of functional complexity to be
implemented has turned out to be significantly
higher than in conventional signalling and train
control systems, thus resulting in substantial
cost increases for software development,
homologation and maintenance.
Project within the
ITEA2/EUREKA framework
In order to overcome these problems, a project
has been proposed to the ITEA2 programme
committee and was finally approved at the end
of 20112. ITEA2 stands for ‘Information
Technology for European Advancement’ and is a
part of the EUREKA cluster programme;
a Europe-wide research and development inter-
governmental network initiative. ITEA 2 is
devoted to pan-European programme for
advanced precompetitive research and
development in software. Each project is
supported financially by the country members
of the EUREKA framework.
The purpose of the project is to develop an
integrated modelling, development, validation
and testing framework for leveraging the cost-efficient and reliable implementation of ETCS.
The framework will provide a holistic tool chain
across the whole development process of ETCS
software. The tool chain will support the formal
specification and verification of the ETCS system
requirements, the automatic and ETCS
compliant code generation and validation,
and the model-based test case generation and
execution. It will utilise ‘Open Standards’ on all
levels, including hardware and software
specification, interface definition, design tools,
verification and validation procedures and, last
but not least, embedded control software.
By applying those technologies and related
European Railway Review
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
Klaus-Rüdiger Hase
Manager of ETCS On-Board Systems, DB Netz AG
‘Open Proofs’ (OP) is a new approach for safety and security critical systems and
a further development of the ‘Open Source Software’ (OSS) concept for critical
systems, not just applying OSS licensing concepts to the final software products
itself, but also to the entire life cycle and all software components involved,
including tools, documentation for specification, verification, implementation,
maintenance and in particular including safety case documents. A potential field
of applying OP is the European Train Control System (ETCS) the new signalling
and Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system to replace more than 20 national
legacy signalling systems all over the European Union. The OP approach might
help manufacturers, train operators, infrastructure managers and safety
authorities to eventually reach the ambitious goal of a unified fully interoperable
and still affordable European Train Control and Signalling System, facilitating
fast and reliable cross-border rail traffic at state-of-the-art safety and security
levels. An ITEA2 project proposal called ‘openETCS’ has been approved within
the framework of EUREKA, the EU R&D programme, bringing together more than
30 organisations in 10 European countries in order to apply the OP approach to
ETCS on-board unit software.
openETCS:
Applying ‘OpenProofs’ to European
Train Control
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT02
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business concepts, a significant cost cut for the
final on-board product is expected down to or
even below conventional high performance cab
signalling systems (e.g. LZB Linien-Zug-
Beeinflussung, as used in Germany, Austria and
Spain). The open source concept provides for a
neutral and formal method based ‘correct’
functioning reference device that will help to
overcome existing interoperability problems,
supporting manufacturers, infrastructure
managers and railway undertakings alike,
avoiding exhaustive field tests, transferring
verification and validation activities from the
track site into laboratories, saving scarce
resources and finally accelerating the migration
process and therefore supporting the European
ERTMS deployment plan.
This projec t mainly add res ses inte r-
operability for the European railway sector,promoting competitiveness of the European
industry giving them a leading edge and
creating new jobs in the software service
industry by applying first time a new concept
called ‘Open Proofs’, fulfilling safety and security
demands as requested by EU parliament
resolution A5-0264/20013. A key element for
improving that situation seems to be a
greater degree of standardisation in par-
ticular for the ETCS on-board equipment on
various levels. Standardisation by applying
open source licensing concepts will be the
focus of this project, and therefore has been
called ‘openETCS’4.
State-of-the-art technology and
potential ‘Road Blocks’
The EVC (Europ ean Vital Com puter) is the
heart of the ERTMS on-board system. This
safety computer implements the functions
of the SRS subset 026 of UNISIG (for SRS
versions beginning with baseline 3, published
by ERA) in order to guarantee the safety of
the train movements.
The EVC is also the carrier of interoperability
in the ETCS vision:
● An on-board system has to be able to
execute any SRS-function
● An on-board system has to be able to
execute different versions of the SRS
to guarantee the upward compatibility
(see subset 26 – §6).
Due to these characteristics, most of the UNISIG
members have chosen to develop the EVC
software as generic software intended to be
reused in different application projects with a
specific configuration. This model ensures that
a continuous return of experience is injected
back in the software development, ensuring a
convergence to maturity. However, up to
now there was little cooperation at the level
of software development between these
manufacturers (see Figure 2 on page 4).
The development of the EVC software is
performed using the methods described for
software development in CENELEC EN 50128
for SIL4 software5,6. The level of reliability
required by the standard strongly increases the
number of activity to be performed to release a
software version.
The software development is facing the
following difficulties or criticisms:
1. The SRS specification is written in natural
English language relying on free drawings
that can be interpreted in slightly different
manners by the designers in charge of
making the software
2. The SRS specification has to be refined,
because it is written as a system specification
without making a clear allocation betweentrackside and train borne functions
3. Due to its start in the late 1990s, the soft-
ware has been based on traditional
software development methodologies
(traceability between specification layers,
independent code review, unitary tests
etc…) that requires extensive work in case
of software modifications
4. The SRS specification has frequently
changed and evolved through the years,
making the non-regression work in
between the successive versions con-
sequent and costly
5. The development work in parallel by several
European Railway Review
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SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT 03
Figure 1: Europe’s challenge is to substitute more than 20 different signalling and ATP systems by one single system, the European Train Control System (ETCS),in order to provide fast and smooth border crossing interstate rail transit in all over the European Union.
Europe’s railways havedeveloped over the last 150 years
within national boundaries, resulting ina variety of different signalling and
train control systems, which hamper cross-border traffic
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manufacturers of the EVC software code
makes the necessary investment huge and
final products very costly.
Despite the fact that several major European
suppliers with substantial knowledge in
signalling technology have worked on the
aforementioned common System Requirement
Specification for more than a decade, and
considering above mentioned difficulties, the
main goal of interoperability has not yet been
accomplished. Up to now, not a single ETCS
on-board unit has been approved to operate on
all existing European ETCS lines. Therefore, the
on-going development of ETCS has to be
considered as ‘work in progress’ resulting in
many software upgrades to be expected in the
near and distant future.
A lack of standardisation on various levels,
different national homologation procedures
and a diversity of operational rules combined
with interfacing to several legacy systems
during a lengthy transitional period has to be
considered as major cost drivers. Almost all
products on the market are based on different
proprietary software designs, which results in a
life-long dependency from the original
manufacturers causing high lifecycle costs for
vehicle owners.
On the other hand, several programmes
where several competing manufacturers do not only agree on common functional specification
documents, but common design principles and
even specific common interfaces and common
HW and SW designs (AUTOSAR7) or software
development platforms (TOPCASED8) in order to
share cost and improve overall product quality.
Pre-competitive cooperation by
Open Source principles The key element for improving that situation
seems to be a greater degree of standardisa-
tion for hardware, software, documentation,
methods and tools in combination with formal
methodology and modelling technique,
applying open source license schemes to
promote and encourage EU wide cooperation
(see Figure 3 on page 5).
The proposed open sour ce appr oac h is
utilising concepts from the automotive and
aviation industry, not only covering the
embedded control software of the ETCS
on-board unit itself, but including all tools and
documents in order to make the entire product
European Railway Review
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT04
Figure 2: Divergent interpretation of a common and mandatory public domain ETCS SRS document,due to the ‘human factor’ by parallel working, not closely cooperating manufacturers, and causingdiffer¬ent software solutions with deviant reaction patterns, which results in interoperability deficiencies and costly subsequent retrofit works.
For the on-board part of the ETCSequipment, the degree of functional complexity to be implemented has
turned out to be significantly higher than in conventional signalling and train control systems, thus resulting
in substantial cost increases for software development, homologation
and maintenance
ITEA2 stands for ‘InformationTechnology for European
Advancement’ and is a part of theEUREKA cluster programme;
a Europe-wide research and development inter-governmental
network initiative
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life cycle as transparent as possible and make it
comprehensible for third parties. Making the
proof of safety open to the entire professional
world has been called ‘Open Proof’ and is new to
the railway sector.
The European avionics sector (Aerospace
Valley) has already developed its own open
source tools chain and has successfully created
an eco-system, which maintains a Software
Development tools Kit (SDK), called TOPCASED,
based on the widely used open source Eclipse
software platform9. TOPCASED was specifically
designed to suit the needs for functional
specification, software development and
verification for highly safety critical vital flight
control applications. Since requirements arequite similar for railway and aviation safety
equipment, such tool chains would form a good
basis for openETCS. These tools need however
to be adapted to mandatory technical processes
and norms (CENELEC), in particular EN 501286,
for safety critical software in the railway domain.
Such an holistic approach will therefore
cover not only the implementation of the (core)
functionalities of the ETCS on-board unit itself,
but also semiformal and formal models, the
results of the verification and validation tasks as
well as the test-cases, the test and simulation
results, the tools that have been applied during
the various steps and a structured argumenta-
tion that the whole process has been carried out
in a way that the result is accepted to be
safe. This approach is called ‘Open Proofs’
(see Figure 4 on page 6).
In the automotive and aviation industry,
there exists, to a certain degree, similar app-
roaches. To not reinvent the wheel, those
approaches and already existing tool-chains
(e.g. TOPCASED) will be examined, evaluated
and, if so adopted to the specific needs of the
railway sector (CENELEC norms, EN 50128). Thus, the technical innovation lies in the
development and provision of an integrated
system consisting of interrelated models, proofs,
tools and the corresponding documentation for
the core functionalities of an ETCS on-board
unit. This goal can only be reached by
the support of all the groups within the
consortium, meaning the practical experiences
and needs of the railway operators, the
application experiences of the suppliers and
the theoretical knowledge and approaches
from the research partners10.
Expected results
The results of a successful openETCS project
will lead to the following potential products
and services:
● openETCS platform: Open source platform
for validation and verification of ETCS
requirements. Then openETCS platform will
be based on a consistent integrated
software tools chain and open proofs
concept for formal modelling, validation,
and verification of ETCS requirements. The
tools chain will include the necessary
software tools.
●
Open Proofs Concept: Open SourceSoftware (OSS) methodology will be
extended to an ‘Open Proofs’ concept.
With ‘Open Proofs’ the development
process of complex safety-related ETCS
systems will be made more transparent and
the entrance level to formal methodologies
will be reduced.
● Formalised ETCS requirements:
Formalised ETCS requirements that are
European Railway Review
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SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT 05
Figure 3: Proposed ‘openETCS’ open source software and hardware standardisation project based SRSin natural English specification text (= ‘prose’) provided by ERA. Converting the SRS into an open sourceformal functional specification to define open software for modelling as well as embedded control production type software.
Most of the UNISIG members havechosen to develop the EVC software asgeneric software intended to be reused in different application projects with a
specific configuration
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integrated into the open proof
environment will increase the life cycle of
both new developed systems and existing
systems. Changing requirements on the
safety of systems, i.e., enhancements to the
ETCS standard are likely to be included
rather quickly in the open proof
environment: this is a significant
characteristic of open source systems.
Hence, existing and operating OBUs can be
easily verified against these new
requirements by the operating company
and, if necessary, be updated by the
developing company...
● Future OBU development: The resulting
open source platform for validation and
verification of ETCS requirements leads to a
lean and sustainable development of on-
board units (OBUs) possibly based on COTShardware and software components, which
is not the case in today’s ETCS systems.
● openETCS – kernel and abstraction layer:
The openETCS platform will be supported
by an openETCS kernel and an openETCS
abstraction layer necessary to support
future ETCS hardware platform and virtual
systems during long lifecycle.
● Long-term maintenance service: Because
ETCS systems have very long life-cycle
(2-4 decades) new maintenance services
will be established. This will result in
updated and modern ETCS and will improve
safety significantly.
● Services around openETCS platform:
Provision of new services and offerings for
the development and V&V of safety critical
embedded controlled systems in the
railway sector.
Conclusion The major goal of unified European train control,
signalling, and train protection system, ETCS,
has led to highly complex functionality for the
on-board units. A lack of standardisation on
various levels, combined with interfacing to
several legacy systems during a lengthy
transitional period has to be considered as a
major cost driver. Therefore, even compared
with some of the more sophisticated legacy ATP
and ATC systems in Europe, ETCS has turned out
to be far more expensive without providing
much, if any, additional performance or safety
advantages. Therefore an open source approach
has been suggested, not only covering the
embedded control software of the ETCS on-
board unit itself, but including all tools and
documents in order to make the whole product
life cycle as transparent as possible optimising
economy, reliability, safety and security alike.
This conc ept is cal led ‘Ope n Proof’ – a new
approach for the railway signalling sector.
References
1. UNISIG stands for ‘Union of Signalling Industry’ and is an
industrial association with all major European signalling
manufacturers being members, who provide ERTMS
related products and services.
2. ITEA2 Project Outline/Full Project Proposal Annex,
openETCS: Open Proofs Methodology for the European
Trai n Cont rol System ; Proj ect No.: ITEA 2 11025,
30.09.2011, Document: 11025_openETCS_FPP_Annex_
ITEA2_20110930_v2.2
3. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: REPORT on the existence of a
global system for the interception of private and
commercial communications (ECHELON interception
system) (2001/2098(INI)), Part 1: Motion for a resolution:
A5-0264/2001, 11. July 2001. http://www.europarl.
europa.eu/comparl/tempcom/echelon/pdf/rapport_echelon_en.pdf
4. Hase, K.-R.: “Open Proof” for Railway Safety Software –
A Potential Way-out of Vendor Lock-in, Advancing to
Standardization, Transparency, and Software Security; E.
Schnieder, G. Tarnai (Editors); FORMS-/FORMAT 2010,
Proceedings; Springer, Berlin Heidelberg 2011; ISBN
978-3-642-14260-4
5. CENELEC. EN 50126 – Railway applications – The
specification and demonstration of Reliability,
Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS).
CENELEC European Committee for Electrotechnical
Standardization, Central Secretariat: Rue de Stassart 35,
B1050 Brussels, 09/1999
6. CENELEC. EN 50128:2011 – Railway applications –
Communications, signalling and processing systems –
Software for railway control and protection systems.
Preliminary Version for vote, CENELEC European
Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, Central
Secr.: Rue de Stassart 35, B1050 Brussels, 06/2011
7. AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture)
http://www.autosar.org/find02_ns6.php
8. Using TOPCASED and a viewpoint-based Framework to
describe Safety Concerns of Railway Signalling Systems
– F. Thomas (Obeo) & F. Belmonte (Alstom Transport) –
FIRST TOPCASED DAYS TOULOUSE 2011 February 2nd-
4th, 2011 Toulouse, France
9. The Eclipse Foundation open source community
website., http://www.eclipse.org
10. Eclipse for Railway Safety Engineering, F. Thomas
(Obeo), F. Belmonte (Alstom Transport) & E. Juliot
(Obeo), EclipseCon Europe 2011, Ludwigsburg,
Germany Nov. 2 – 4.
European Railway Review
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT06
Dr. Klaus-Rüdiger Hase has worked for
Deutsche Bahn since 2002, and is
currently at DB Netz AG in charge of the
‘European Train Control System’ on-
board programme. Until 2007 he was
managing DB’s regional EMU/DMU
engineering group. His earlier work
included at AEG Transportation in Berlin and Pittsburgh, PA,
(USA) before he became Head of R&D for on-board electronics
at Knorr-Bremse, Munich. In 2008 he launched DB’s
international openETCS initiative and is heading the European
openETCS project within the ITEA2 programme (EUREKA).
BIOGRAPHY
Figure 4: Open Proofs will result in stronger co-operation for pre-competitive common software
components like specification, software tools and the ETCS on-board kernel software, leaving room for product differentiation on the hardware side as well as on services around the core product.
Up to now, not a single ETCSon-board unit has been approved
to operate on all existing EuropeanETCS lines. Therefore, the on-going
development of ETCS has to beconsidered as ‘work in progress’
resulting in many softwareupgrades to be expected in the
near and distant future.
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European Railway Review
www.europeanrailwayreview.com Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUPPLEMENT 07ADVERTORIAL
Access to ultra-high-speed broadband plus
high-definition and 3D TV is the future of mobile
telecommunications. Within just a few years,
anyone will be able to utilise these bandwidth-
hungry services from their smartphone, game
console, tablet or laptop by accessing a fourth-
generation (4G) network.
Long Term Evolution (LTE) is gaining
traction as the preferred standard for 4G with
more
than 50 commercial networks launched
between 2009 and the first quarter of 2012, and128 expected by the end of 2012.
Rail users will also expect access to these
services. Indeed, LTE has the potential to
transform the passenger experience by
enabling operators to offer innovative services
such as individual journey plans, tailored
marketing messages, and communications
during service disruptions. However, the
benefits offered by LTE are not limited to
passengers. By hosting all communications on a
single platform, an LTE-based network can
revolutionise an operator’s critical
communications while optimising traffic and
reducing costs.
Railways must therefore consider
investments in a high bandwidth IP backboneas the first step towards a multi-service
communications network that will support LTE.
This might seem a daunting prospect, but as the
European Commission noted in its 2009
document A Sustainable Future for Transport,
“upgrading existing infrastructure – also
through intelligent transport systems – is in
many ways the cheapest way to enhance the
overall performance of the transport system.”
Optimising operations and
saving costs with LTE
Advances in telemetry and machine-to-machine
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monitoring are already promoting a shift
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maintenance. Real-time traffic management
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And when the time comes to upgrade to LTE,
the high bandwidth on offer will allow
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signalling, CCTV, VoIP, and entertainmentstreams to coexist on a single platform without
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Alcatel-Lucent is currently testing LTE with
existing signalling systems with a view towards
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cation networks. Some of these systems were
developed for the pre-IP era and are limited to
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CBTC with restricted data exchange or, in the
case of the Wi-Fi networks, are unsuitable for
moving objects. By contrast, LTE is designed to
deliver truly mobile multiple broadband
IP-based services, and in conjunction with its
sophisticated Quality of Service (QoS)
mechanism, is capable of prioritising various
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mising reliability.
With such substantial changes on the
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Choosing a supplier with suitable experience
is therefore crucial.
Alcatel-Lucent is already working with Adif
and Metro Madrid in Spain as part of the‘TECRAIL’ project to identify the most effective
transition of LTE to mainline and urban railway
communication networks. These emphasise an
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As Long Term Evolution (LTE) is rolled out on commercial mobile networks across
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Revolutionising railwaycommunications with LTE
Research is now underway on using LTE and IP
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From a technology built to ensure inter-
operability on European railways, ERTMS has
now moved to a global signalling standard.
A system designed initially for freight and
high-speed traffic, it is now showing its
capability to be used in a suburban environ-
ment. Equally, it also faces a number of
challenges, related for instance to its
deployment in Europe – which is sometimes
slower than originally expected – contrasting
with the original European aim but showing its
significant global success.
ERTMS deployment – where are we?
The recently published UNIFE ERTMS statistics
offer an interesting perspective with respect to
both the impressive level of investments
worldwide and on the suitability of ERTMS for
various rail operations.
Firstly, the number of railway lines already
equipped or contracted to be equipped with
ERTMS has substantially grown in recent years,
reaching a total figure of 62,000km (against
37,000km in September 2010). Equally, more
than 7,500 vehicles are already running or
contracted to be equipped with ERTMS.
In terms of geographical coverage, Europe
still accounts for the majority of the investments,
but significant contracts have been signed in
non-European countries in recent times. Whilst
ERTMS has been traditionally successful in Asia,
China, Taiwan and South Korea in particular,
new markets have emerged in the past two
years in other regions such as Africa and theMiddle East (where the Gulf countries are
building significant railway networks which will
be interconnected using ERTMS), Latin America
(Brazil) and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand).
There are in total 38 nations around the world
investing into ERTMS – quite a considerable
figure for a system which is still considered as
‘young’ in railway signalling terms.
ERTMS, a global standard for
signalling worldwide
Focusing on the investments outside Europe,
ERTMS also shows its suitability to a variety of
applications, including:
● High-Speed Rail: ERTMS is already in service
on Chinese and Turkish high-speed lines;
major contracts have been awarded in
other regions of the world, such as the Saudi
Arabia (Mecca-Medina high-speed line),
whilst the US is considering its use for the
country’s future high-speed programme
● Freight: major investments have been made
in the Gulf & Middle East (e.g. Saudi Arabia,
United Arab Emirates), India or Indonesia, to
use ERTMS in freight applications
● Suburban applications: this latter trend was
perhaps unforeseen, but ERTMS is
increasingly used in a suburban context,
with contracts signed in Brazil (Rio suburban
network), Mexico DF, Australia (Sydney
suburban) and New Zealand (Auckland).
These successes are a fantastic showcase for the
European rail supply industry. Being offered by
all major European rail suppliers, ERTMS has
become a de facto worldwide signallingstandard. Whilst most of this success can be
explained by the advantages it brings in terms of
supplier-to-supplier compatibility, flexibility and
performance, cross-border interoperability is
also becoming an important factor, typically in
the Gulf countries. This success also shows
that the ‘business case’ of ERTMS – which is
sometimes pointed out by some European
railways – is right in many nations around the
world which do not have any legal obligation to
invest into this system. In many respects, this
demonstrates a paradoxical evolution of a
standard defined in Europe but which is
enthusiastically adopted abroad.
European Railway Review
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
Emmanuel Brutin
Senior Public Affairs Manager, UNIFE
‘European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS): Global dimensions’ was the
theme of the latest UIC Global ERTMS Conference, which took place in Stockholm
on 24-26 April 2012 and clearly highlighted a major shift in the history of this
signalling system.
ERTMS: Globaldimensions, global
challenges
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUPPLEMENT08
Figure 1: ERTMS trackside contracts,in track-km (excluding frame contracts),comparison September 2010-April 2012Source: UNIFE, April 2012
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The ERTMS specifications and
worldwide needs for signalling
Such drastic evolution towards a global
standard also raises the issue of the ERTMS
specifications and the way they are written
today. For obvious historical and political
reasons, Europe is the ‘home’ of the ERTMS
specifications, which are under the responsi-
bility of the European Railway Agency (acting as
system authority ) with the support of the EU rail
sector organisations. Is a situation whereby a
standard used primarily outside European
borders being defined by European stake-
holders sustainable in the long run?
Several remarks can be made on the
challenges arising from the ‘globalisation’
of ERTMS.
Firstly, the use of GSM-R is questioned bymany nations around the world. Several
countries wishing to use ERTMS face issues of
GSM-R availability, whilst others wish to use
different or more modern telecommunication
means (e.g. TETRA, IP-based like GPRS). In the
medium- term, the creation of ‘bearer-
independent’ devices, instead of railway-specific
telecommunication means, seems unavoidable.
Secondly, ERTMS is increasingly used in
a Suburban context – as shown by the
investments made in the Rio de Janeiro,
Auckland, Sydney or Mexico DF suburban
networks. Such developments called for the
implementation of new functions and interfaces
– for instance Automatic Train Operation (ATO)
or connection with ‘urban’ signalling environ-
ment to cope with demands for short headways
and higher throughputs.
Thi rdl y, ERTMS has – for the rea son s
explained above – been designed primarily for
the needs of the European network, marked
by the coexistence of high-speed lines, and
a high density freight and conventional
passenger network. Worldwide, countries’
needs may differ in this respect. Indeed, a
large number of countries around the globe
(Russia, Australia, etc.), due to their specific
geographical situation, may wish to implement
ERTMS on long, low-density lines. From this
point-of-view, the use of satellite navigation, as
an alternative to a balise system which may besubject to theft or high temperature, may
seem appropriate.
Whilst some of these evolutions are already
ongoing in Europe (use of GPRS and ATO in
particular), these ‘non-European’ needs could
well play an important role in the evolution of
the standard in the coming years.
The European dimension:
an uneven situation
Within Europe, ERTMS investments remain
largely uneven. Some countries like Switzerland,
Belgium or Denmark have launched major
investments in 2011 and 2012, with contracts
signed to equip their entire railway networks.
Conversely, some other countries right in the
middle of Europe are still lagging behind,
despite the European ERTMS Deployment
Plan, which makes investments mandatory
on a number of key freight Corridors by 2015
and 2020.
ERTMS deployment in Europe:
a political debate, besides
technical issuesOne can wonder how long a situation where
some of the largest networks in Europe continue
to postpone investments whilst the other
massively equip their networks will last. Indeed,
the ‘traditional’ arguments against the
deployment of ERTMS have been shrinking in
previous years:
● The com plaints about the ‘teething
problems’ and ‘lack of supplier-to-supplier
compatibility’ now seem partly, if not totally
irrelevant. ERTMS is now in operation in aconsiderable number of countries; more
importantly, customers of ERTMS are very
happy with the system; we touch here a
very typical ERTMS paradox, whereby
customers are actually happy with the
system, whilst those complaining about it
are investing little in it
● The issue of the ‘stability of the specifica-
tions’ is also behind us. In this respect,
the adoption of the Baseline 3 of the
specifications in April 2012, after con-
siderable work achieved by ERA and the
sector, marked an important milestone,
completing the work of the 2.3.0d version
adopted in 2008
● The complaints on the ‘costs’ of the system
are also losing ground. Firstly, the global
success of ERTMS tends to demonstrate that
it is highly price competitive. Secondly,
European Railway Review
www.europeanrailwayreview.com Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUPPLEMENT 09
Figure 2: ERTMS on-board equipment contracts, in number of vehiclescomparison September 2010-April 2012Source: UNIFE, April 2012
Figure 3: ERTMS trackside contracts, in percentage, by region Source: UNIFE, April 2012
The recently published UNIFE ERTMSstatistics offer an interesting
perspective with respect to both theimpressive level of investments
worldwide and on the suitability of ERTMS for various rail operations
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empirical analysis show that prices are
strongly decreasing to a very large extent.
Thirdly, the suppliers have taken a number
of initiatives to standardise some interfaces
(Train Interface Unit, investigations on the
DMI-EVC interface) that will further reduce
costs and ease the acceptance of the
system. Lastly, UNIFE has also conducted
some analysis on the cost breakdown of
ERTMS, showing the areas that should be
investigated for further cost re ductions
(typically, reducing the number of
legacy systems and especially reducing
authorisation costs). These issues are
currently considered by the EU Institution
(please see below, ERTMS Memorandum
of Understanding).
The challenge for ERTMS deployment in Europe
therefore appears as a ‘political’ rather than a
‘technical’ concern. Are the Member States
ready to invest in a system that brings
sometimes more ‘European’ added-value than
purely a National one? Are stakeholders ready to
‘forget their darlings’ and adopt a new system
for the European common good? Finally, is the
European railway community mature enough
for interoperability and full competition?
Opening new perspectives
The Memorandum of Understanding signed
in April 2012 in Copenhagen by the
European Commission (Vice President Kallas)
and the railway associations (UNIFE, CER, UIC,
UNIFE, EIM, GSM-R Industry Group and ERFA)
further reinforces the cooperation amongst
stakeholders and opens new opportunities
for ERTMS.
In particular, it recognises the need to
migrate the existing installations, many of which
were put into operation in the 2000s, to
an interoperable Baseline (2.3.0d and/or
Baseline 3). Such coordinated migration will
ensure that ERTMS-equipped trains may run on
any existing ERTMS lines. The Memorandum
also underlines the need for stablespecifications, which has been achieved with
the Baseline 3 documents published in April,
whilst ensuring some technical cooperation on
matters of interests (typically testing).
Importantly, the text also recognises the
costs of ‘non-Europe’ when it comes to ERTMS: a
coordinated migration to ERTMS of existing
lines, as opposed to fragmented investments,
would strongly improve the business for rail
operators. So would the gradual de-comm-
issioning of legacy systems. Equally, a simplified
authorisation scheme for railway equipment
would greatly reduce the costs of ERTMS – today
authorisation accounts for a major share of the
costs of the equipment!
In many respects, decision-makers,
operators, infrastructure managers and
suppliers have a clear roadmap ahead, as
underlined by the Memorandum of Under-
standing. It will be a joint responsibility of the
sector to successfully deploy ERTMS in Europe
and make the system as successful in Europe as
it is on the worldwide stage.
European Railway Review
Volume 18, Issue 3, 2012
SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONS SUPPLEMENT10
Emmanuel Brutin graduated in 2004
from Sciences-Po Lille, a French Grande
Ecole, where he focused on European
studies and Public Relations. He
subsequently completed a Master’s
degree in European Public Affairs before
beginning his professional career in a
Brussels-based Communications & Lobbying Consultancy,
where he was responsible for a large number of international
clients in the transport sector. Emmanuel joined UNIFE in 2008.As Senior Public Affairs Manager, he focuses his work on the
strategic, political and communication issues related to ERTMS
as well as on UNIFE’s international activities.
BIOGRAPHY
Figure 4: ERTMS trackside contracts, Rest of the World, in track-km
(excluding frame contracts) Source: UNIFE, April 2012
Figure 5: ERTMS trackside contracts, Europe, in track-km(excluding frame contracts) Source: UNIFE, April 2012
It will be a joint responsibility of thesector to successfully deploy ERTMS in
Europe and make the system assuccessful in Europe as it is on the
worldwide stage
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