REGISTER

A recap on the Younger Members event which was held prior to the July Technical Conference in Ballarat Victoria.

The Victorian tram and train networks operate on a Franchise Model that includes both the operation and maintenance of the networks’ assets, with the contracts managed by Public Transport Victoria (PTV). PTV identified that to better manage investment decisions and to prepare for the next franchise contract, it needed a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term condition of its assets whose lifespan far exceeds rail franchise contract terms. This paper outlines the steps PTV undertook to kick-start the journey of enhanced asset knowledge through the delivery of Phase 1 of the Asset Condition Assessment Program (ACAP).

During Phase 1, a suite of asset condition assessment guidelines was developed and baseline asset condition assessments for every asset type within the metro rail and tram infrastructure, rolling stock and OCMS asset classes were undertaken. The team developed a data rich framework which represents a paradigm shift to the transport sector’s view of asset condition by understanding the life ending dominant failure modes of assets and identifying metrics to repeatedly measure the lead indicators of failure.

Phase 1 of ACAP is due for completion by July 2019 and is expected to demonstrate the following outcomes that will be presented to the audience:
• A repeatable and scalable method to define and track long term failure modes
• A data driven approach to identifying optimum representative samples of assets to monitor
• Visualisation techniques for aggregating asset remaining useful life to asset class and network health
• Lessons from data collection in a brown field environment and how we intend to tackle these for Phase 2 and beyond.

Automatic Selective Door Operation system automatically determines the doors to enable at a given platform. It also triggers visual/audio announcements to inform passengers where doors remain closed and guiding passengers in adequate time to alight the train from through the train where doors are opened. This function reduces the role the train crew have to perform with respect to door operations, to correctly positioning the train and then operating the door release button. Management of abnormal or degraded situations are addressed through manual override.

Correct side door enable function is part of the Automatic Selective Door Operation System. With this function doors on the opposite side of the platform are inhibited. Correct side door enabling function can be enabled automatically by the Automatic Selective Door Operations system without intervention from train crew or through verification and then selection from train crew.

This paper discusses the implementation Automatic Selective Door Operation System and Correct Side Door Enable Function, where the position and system data are obtained using the Eurobalise and an on-train Eurobalise reader using the ERTMS/ETCS system, on the Sydney Trains Network as part of the New Intercity Fleet project.

This paper focuses on the integration of new technology into existing operations including maintenance considerations, Human Factors, interfacing and integrating with existing projects that are being deployed simultaneously along with New Intercity Fleet project and finally this paper concludes with the lessons learned.

Urban Circus has had the opportunity to work alongside Metro Trains Melbourne and the Level Crossings Removal Projects on the signal sighting for the Carrum to Kananook Level Crossing Removal Project on the Frankston Line. Utilising our in-house 3D visualisation tool, a myriad of data types and our Signalling Workflow Methodology, we were able to enhance and support the design, validation and approval process of the Signalling Arrangement Plan.

This paper shares our findings while working on the Carrum to Kananook Level Crossing Removal Project.
The paper is divided into three parts:
• The first part consists of the project background, an explanation of the support we provided to the Signalling Design Team as well as the results we gained in the Review Workshops attended by the Signal Sighting Committee.
• The second part of the paper introduces the Signalling Workflow Methodology that we developed while working alongside the Signalling Design Team and its impact on the design, validation and approval process of the Signal Arrangement Design process.
• The third part focuses on Urban Circus inhouse 3d tool that was used to facilitate the Review Workshops as part of the Signal Sighting Workflow Methodology and its potential impacts on the Signalling Design package.

The biggest learning for us was the level of collaboration and interaction that the process within the workflow created.

Ballarat Line Upgrade (BLU) is the first project in the $1.75 billion dollar portfolio of Region Rail Revival program that will see upgrades to every regional passenger train line in Victoria. Even more so, BLU is one of several Victorian rail projects taking place concurrently in the recent years of infrastructure boom. This brings a great security to those in the railway industry to not move interstate looking for project work but also brings many challenges to meet infrastructure needs.

The paper intends to briefly outline the BLU project and provide a signalling perspective in the success and challenges of delivering major capital works. The content will mainly relate to signalling delivery, design, technology choices, program, procurement, standards, resource, cost, and time will be explored with practical application through past and recent experiences.

The future of delivery of projects has an opportunity to share the lessons learnt with industry to mature and streamline the processes and applications of delivery.

The mode selection function allows switching between the operating modes of the High Capacity Metro Train (HCMT) for the Metro Tunnel Project (MTP) in Melbourne, i.e. conventional signalling and CBTC modes under normal and degraded operating modes of High Capacity Signalling (HCS). The task of specifying and designing the associated systems (cab HMI, on-board CBTC, people and process) is complex, made so by the more obvious issues of multiple stakeholders, but also by the less obvious issues of our preconceptions and experiences. Each of these needs to adapt to some extent for integration to be successful.

This paper provides a general context for the MTP and HCS scope and technical content from which a case study of the mode selection function is then presented. That illustrates how diversity of knowledge inputs and previous experience provides both positive and negative influence in reaching an outcome. Established principles of designing for driver interaction are discussed alongside the designer interactions and preconceptions as they are equally part of the human in the overall system. The seemingly simple act of appreciating the different perspectives and seeking to understand where the other party is coming from influence what the design outcome is, but also change how that is arrived at.

Any change to an operational system in the railway industry is met with rigorously engineered safety controls – whether it be a signalling system or a power distribution system, a strong emphasis is placed on engineering out risk: equipment should be designed and built with high resiliency, redundancy, availability, and so on. And yet even the most perfectly engineered signals, plant or rolling stock are still operated at some point by a human.

Humans are part of railway systems too, but humans cannot be engineered like a piece of physical infrastructure. Their propensity for “faults” (i.e., non-conformance behaviour) has to be built into the design, rather than built out of the design. Most safety-critical systems require human operators to make decisions based on the information on a computer screen, and yet the design of this Human-Machine Interface (HMI) is often overlooked in the rail industry as a significant risk factor. This is despite decades’ worth of examples from other industries that have implicated poor HMI design as a contributing factor in catastrophic failures of safety-critical systems.

A recent IRSE article discussed ‘why do signalling projects fail’ and provided valuable insights into what defines a failed project, as well as the inherent risks that contribute to this. It was identified that the primary challenge is to optimise project scope whilst ensuring it is compatible with project schedule and cost constraints and considering signalling project delivery risks (Rumsey 2018). Achieving this trade-off for signalling ‘brownfield’ sites can be even more challenging due to the legacy issues and complexities involved.

The evolution of digital technologies and information and communication technologies represents a great opportunity forrailway managers and operators to manage efficiently the railway infrastructure and to improve their services.

Important steps in this direction have already been taken by railway equipment suppliers, and smart solutions areavailable in the market.

This paper describes the innovative solutions for the digitalization of railway infrastructure and the achievement of highcapacity, reliable, and cost-efficient rail transport.

Two solutions are described: The evolution of ETCS, for improving network capacity, and minimizing infrastructureupgrading, and the Intelligent Asset Management System, for exploiting the vast amount of available data bytransforming it into knowledge for supporting decision-making. These two solutions provide a broader vision of a futurerailway by forming part of an integrated transport eco-system in which information is exchanged between differentservice providers and transportation modes ultimately to deliver reliable integrated mobility.

Assurance is increasingly being mandated for Australian rail projects as the means to satisfy ever-increasing governance requirements. The size and complexity of projects like Sydney Metro, Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail require consortium-based delivery models, be that Alliances, Public Private Partnerships, or some combination resulting in many interfaces, not only within the project delivery structure but with many stakeholders. Hence the need to assure that project outcomes will be achieved.

Assurance however is not a guarantee of the project objectives. Assurance is about providing a level of confidence that the objectives will be achieved, and hopefully increasing that level of confidence as the project progresses through its development lifecycle.

However, when delivering fixed assets and rolling stock, project sponsors and RTOs need to be assured that they are not just safe but are also fit-for-purpose in terms of functionality, performance (deliver the task and responsiveness), configurability, constructability & testability, reliability and availability, security, and supportability over the service life expected.

The paper elaborates these fit-for-purpose attributes and proposes two key aspects for any Assurance Case; namely compliance and correctness.

Engineering process embraces tools, methodologies and resources to make sure the outcome of engineering process is safe so far as is reasonably practical (SFAIRP) and that there is a clear and transparent translation of the document application that leads to efficiency.

Currently, significant focus is on integration. Digital engineering is just one aspect of integration. In our signalling discipline, there can be some challenges when delivering a project, for example: senior designers not having enough time to guide younger designers. Consequently this could lead inexperienced designers to apply outdated standards. Similarly, when approved drawing revisions are updated, there is potential for incorrect and outdated versions to be utilised by installation and test teams. These two examples will lead to significant rework and delivering poor project outcomes.

Modern rail projects are complex.  They use multiple systems and need to be planned, designed, constructed, interfaced, intergrated and tested in an agreed and assured manner to commission a safe, reliable, available and maintainable system.  With the help of advanced technology, a Holistic Systems Engineering Assurance methodology can be implementaed at the beginning of a project and carried forward through the whole life cycle to ensure successfuc completion o fhte project.

This paper answers:

• What is the holistic approach in Systems engineering assurance?
• Why do we need it?
• Where does it apply?
• How do we establish it for a complex rail project? and
• Detailed implementation strategy of the Holistic framework

This paper aims to establish a well-defined Systems Engineering Assurance framework to achieve the performance levels that are important to and expected by stakeholders.

In October 2013, the author and his colleague presented a white paper to the IRSE Perth Technical Meeting entitled“ETCS L2 and CBTC over LTE – Convergence of the radio layer in advanced Train Control System”. The paperdescribed the trends towards using increasingly similar hardware platforms to implement different Train Control Systemapplications, and how that trend could affect the radio component of those same Train Control Systems.

The paper identified 3GPP defined Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as an emerging radio technology that could act as acommon train-to-trackside transport layer that replaced the existing radio layers of the main Automatic Train Control applications of the day, European Train Control System (ETCS) and Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC).

Half a decade has passed since that paper was first presented, and natural passage of time begs the question: what hasbeen the evolution of Automatic Train Control systems since then? Have our 2013 predictions proved accurate? Andwhat can be said about what is likely to happen in the next five years?

This paper will re-visit the postulates presented back in 2013 and review them against the actual technological evolutionof the last five years, by drawing a picture of the current state of affairs in this technology space.

SUMMARY
The renewal and expansion of metropolitan rail networks frequently includes the objective of safely increasing capacity in an environment of constrained physical infrastructure and complex movements of other traffic.

With the availability of high capacity and flexible mainline train control solutions, such as the European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2, attention has moved to the addition of advanced features to deliver further increases in capacity and efficiency. This includes Automatic Train Operation (ATO), combined with enhanced forms of dynamic scheduling and traffic management. This involves both technical and operational innovation but also creates opportunities for more efficient and reliable services

SUMMARY
Beginning with the introduction of chopper controlled trains in the late 1980s, the Sydney rail network has developed and applied standards for compatibility of new rolling stock with signalling train detection systems.

While the fundamentals of testing have remained unchanged, the standards applied and the amount of testing performed have grown as rolling stock evolved and new vulnerabilities were found. New approaches to project delivery and structural changes to the client organisation have added to the complexity of the testing and approval process

SUMMARY

The railways serving Australian capital cities are no different to many railways around the world that face the challenge of rapidly growing populations in their urban areas. Providing improved capacity on existing lines and building new lines to deliver increased services, reducing operating costs, and improving the customer experience all feature as goals for the railway’s over-arching objective of contributing to the creation of liveable cities.

The application of an innovative ETCS solution is one key strategy that is available to assist in achieving this objective by offering an opportunity to:

• Minimize infrastructure upgrading by improving network capacity Trains Per Hour and Trains Paths Per Hour through implementing the latest ETCS baseline and smartest TMS, along with interoperable ATO over ETCS.
• Provide dynamic updating of trips/journeys, improving customer experience by informing them in real time of any impact to their journey times.
• Update key assets/infrastructure information by increasing the ability to respond to network disturbances/issues in a faster manner.
• Drive the trains to the most efficient speed profiles, thereby reducing energy demands on the network and improving service capacity.

The application of ETCS Level 3 functionalities coupled with innovative solutions for train integrity management provide the key pillars of a High Density solution.

The Italian Railway has always been a pioneer in ETCS applications, starting with first ETCS Level 2 line in revenue service in 2005, and now with the current application of the High Density solution for busy areas like Milan Junction. By freely sharing the experience on ETCS projects from a major European operator like Italian Railway this paper envisages to provide valuable underpinning for similar ETCS projects foreseen in the very near future in Australia.

Bill Palazzi

B.Eng (Elec) Hons 1

palazzirail

SUMMARY

A number of railways across Australia are now moving to adopt new network control systems in order to maximise the value (capacity, efficiency, safety) of their rail asset. An integrated and coherent approach to these new network control systems has the potential to provide many benefits to all sections of the industry, and to the economy. Conversely, a disjointed approach will have consequences that will last for many years, including higher costs and lower competitiveness for rail transport.

The paper considers:

• The status of the industry today (breadth of managers, operators, signalling and safeworking systems)
• Advanced signalling initiatives underway
• How we can avoid a new break of gauge – a framework for decision making

Specifically, this paper outlines an approach to ensuring a coherent strategy across the national freight network. This strategy has been developed in conjunction with above and below rail businesses, to ensure that it addresses the business objectives for both.

The strategy set out a framework to guide future decisions: an acceptable National Network Control System outcome must be Safe, Effective, Upgradeable, Scalable, Harmonised and Interoperable.

Based on this framework, a number of essential steps have been identified to ensure an acceptable outcome assuming that currently announced initiatives proceed to their conclusion. Key amongst these is the development of an interoperability solution between ATMS and ETCS Level 2; this initiative has now been committed to by Transport for NSW as part of its Digital Systems program, and will be pursued in conjunction with ARTC. A successful outcome from this work will be a significant step to achieve the overall objective – a coherent national strategy for network control systems, which avoids creating a digital break of gauge.