JOSEPH SHEAD

Incorporated Engineer, MIRSE                     

Ansaldo STS A Hitachi Group Company

SUMMARY

Major projects today request high performance criteria for Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety of Signalling Systems often referring to be compliant with Standard EN 50126/9. Considering that, it would be an extensive task to condense the standard into this paper, which will concentrate on the Safety aspects and the Reliability of Signalling systems. Safety in itself we can expand in a number of ways take for instance the title of RAMS, this is frequently extended to RAMSS, which includes the aspect of Security and these security features will be discussed. Reliability on the other hand goes hand in hand with Availability but namely addresses the issue of probability.

Noel Burton

BSc. (Hons), MIRSE

Engineering Manager NZ, Siemens Mobility Pty Ltd

SUMMARY

The European Train Control System (ETCS) has now established itself globally as the train protection system of choice for many heavy rail networks.  This is largely due to its open standards and multi-vendor support. ETCS was rolled out across the Auckland suburban rail network a few years ago, with the sole aim of improving safety. Following the introduction of ETCS, the safe working ecosystem of rules, signalling principles and ETCS configuration have been reviewed and optimised. Changes have been made for scenarios where it was identified that operational improvements could be attained without compromising safety.

This paper shares descriptions of some of the ETCS related improvements that have been successfully commissioned in Auckland. It is hoped that the successes of these changes in Auckland encourages other ETCS ‘owners’ to develop ideas for other improvements as well.

Changes made in Auckland, that are discussed, include: changes to the Driver’s rulebook, defensive driving strategies, warner route principles, enforcement of speed restrictions and the interaction with level crossings for stopping trains at stations. The paper is intended to give a high level engineering based description of some of these solutions and the reasons behind them.

SUMMARY
Transport for NSW’s (TfNSW) Digital Systems program will transform Sydney’s rail network using world class technology to create high capacity turn up and go services to meet growing demand. The Program will replace legacy signalling and train controls with modern, internationally proven, intelligent systems based around European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 2 technology.
Digital Systems contains three main elements:

• Replacing trackside signalling equipment with the latest ETCS Level 2 technology
• Implementing Automatic Train Operation (ATO), which will be used to assist drivers – who will still remain in control – and provide faster and more consistent journey times
• Introducing a Traffic Management System (TMS) for more effective incident management and service
  regulation across the network.

These elements will deliver significant customer, performance, cost and safety benefits. The modern technology will
allow for data driven operations such as dynamic timetabling, and lead to reduced maintenance possessions and
increased passenger and freight capacity.

An equally significant component of the program is the organisational transformation required to realise the benefits of the new technology, specifically for the resident operators and maintainers - Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink.
This paper provides an overview of this major signalling technology and change program including the latest
developments, delivery considerations and tactics aimed to maximise the potential for successful program delivery.

Federico Nardi
BCompE (Hons), RE(OIGenova), RPEQ (Elec), MIRSE
Ansaldo STS Australia Pty Ltd

SUMMARY
This paper has the aim of describing the status of interoperable ATO over ETCS (AoE). AoE provides a set of non-safety
train operating functions related to speed control, accurate stopping, door opening and closing, and other functions
traditionally assigned to a driver. The safety of operation is ensured by ETCS. Enhancement of the time-table adherence
and optimization of energy consumption are two additional important features of AoE. Ansaldo STS, as a full member
of the UNISIG Consortium, is deeply involved in developing, maintaining and updating the ERTMS specifications in
close cooperation with ERA (system authority for ERTMS).

SUMMARY
25kV railway electrification implementation started in Europe, was implemented in the UK in the late 1950’s and was
migrated to Australia in the mid 1970’s. Although some modification and additions were made to accommodate local
conditions such as the use of the Multiple Earthed Neutral (MEN) in utility distribution systems, even at that time
technology had advanced to the point where some specification requirements really needed reviewing but, lacking
practical experience, remained unchanged. This has become more pressing by the 21st century with the advent of, for
example, Optical Fibre technology, LED signals, axle counters and the demise of the Signal Post Telephone reducing
S&C circuit lengths, questioning the requirement for Booster Transformers. Never the less, many specifications still
quote the standards of the 1950’s.
Unquestioning compliance with requirements appropriate to these standards can have a significant cost, particularly
where existing railways run parallel to, but have no running, over 25kV lines, new or to be electrified, or achieving
separation of earthing systems in existing complexes or new developments over or immediately adjacent to a 25kV
railway. The resulting design may be overly complex, time consuming, expensive or, in practice, realistically
unachievable.
Recent injection testing of nominally non-immune signalling equipment and short circuit and normal running Earth
Potential Rise (EPR) testing on complex Central Business District (CBD) sites has shown that, when the going gets
tough, these issues must be looked at anew from first principles and old rules not followed blindly, if time and cost
blowouts are to be avoided. In some instances, by failing to recognise the nature of a problem, such as EPR arising from
lightning, outdated costly design requirements may not even be effective.

During the past ten years, progress with the Chinese high speed railway (HSR) network has achieved worldwide
recognition and acclaim. The overall operational mileage exceeded 20,000 km by the end of 2017. As for the railway
signaling system, it has been transformed into a large integrated automation system to keep trains safe. To ensure
signal system safety itself, many types of monitoring devices have been developed to monitor the operational conditions
of various items of signal equipment, and the massive amounts monitoring information generated individually are stored
in each subsystem respectively. These monitoring systems indeed improve the maintenance efficiency. However, due to
the isolated information of these monitoring systems, maintenance has even become more difficult for large-scale
complex signaling systems.
Based on big data, this paper proposed an integrated monitoring and comprehensive intelligent analysis scheme for the
signaling system. In the scheme, we show the overall logical framework, the cloud and big data-based data center, the
monitoring data mining and the intelligent analysis task. A case study of the intelligent monitoring and maintenance
system in Guang-Zhou railway bureau is presented. The proposed framework can improve the intelligence level of
maintenance and help to enhance the safe operation. The framework implemented in Guang-Zhou bureau shows the
effective data-driven maintenance approach.

Chee Hoe Chan
Systems Engineer (Integration and Testing)
B Eng. (Electrical and Electronics Engineering)
Siemens Mobility Pty Ltd

SUMMARY
Australia’s urban population density increase poses many new challenges, such as increased network density,
unpredictability and complexity, while keeping up with the increased expectations of accessibility, reliability and
punctuality. This paper discusses the implementation of Dynamic Timetabling and Remote Equipment Diagnostics within
Centralised Traffic Control Systems; how these functionalities can be utilized in tackling these new challenges without
the blowout of operational costs and overhead associated with conventional methods, such as increasing the number of
services and speeds.
Dynamic Timetabling, when paired with train automation modules such as Automatic Route Setting, can dynamically
determine the optimal operational train speed, dwell times, number of services to use in relation to passenger demand
and other traffic conditions. Furthermore, Dynamic Timetabling can assist in the changes of services during unplanned
or irregular disruptions that can easily impact railway operations with disastrous outcomes such as special events and
trackside breakdowns where planned trips can no longer achieve delivery or punctuality.
Remote Equipment Diagnostics involves the pairing of a reporting module with trackside sensors that read wear and tear
of key trackside equipment, such as points and train wheels to ensure that they are preventatively serviced without
incurring the associated overhead for regular inspections and assuring an early replacement of functional parts. Such
sensors vary in application, such as temperature and timing factors, and data can be fed back into the Remote
Equipment Diagnostics to predict the remaining life expectancy of various trackside equipment and whether specific
equipment require maintenance attention.

Adelaide Technical Meeting 2018

Trevor Moore
B Eng, MBA, Hon FIRSE, FIE Aust
Signals Standards Engineer, Australian Rail Track Corporation

SUMMARY
There are many signalling projects undertaken each year in Australasia. Each project involves the signalling design
being produced by a signalling designer or team of signalling designers. The objective is to produce a design that
achieves a set of requirements for the operating railway. There is the possibility of Human Error in the undertaking of
the design. There is a statutory requirement to ensure that the signalling design is safe So Far As Is Reasonably
Practical (SFAIRP).
To achieve the project requirements in a safe manner, a great majority of projects knowingly or not apply the V design
development cycle. As part of this development process a verification of the design is undertaken.
This paper examines why we undertake the design verification, how we undertake the design verification and the
outputs from the verification process. The paper also examines the scope of the verification process.
The design and verification activities are also reviewed in the context of the Systems Engineering Life Cycle.

Jose Luis Arana

Telecommunications Engineer

Thales - Spain

Adelaide Technical Meeting 2018

John Gifford (FIRSE)

Senior Signal Engineer

Grad Dip Engineering

Maintenance Management

Kevin Morris

Technical Support Engineer

Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Hons)

Frauscher Sensor Technology

Conventional track circuits have provided the backbone for railway signalling since their first release in the late 1800’s.
Their simplicity and performance capabilities allowed operators to greatly improve the efficiency of their networks, while
maintaining control over expanding infrastructure. With increased pressure for the railway industry to meet performance
expectations, there has been a push for more reliable and available train detection.
Axle counters provide an alternative to traditional train detection, with the introduction of various smart features to assist
in meeting growing customer expectations. Their ability to provide a high level of reliability, availability and cost efficiency
has ensured their place at the forefront of railway signalling infrastructure.
This application paper examines the benefits which can be achieved by implementing axle counters and provides an
insight into some of the leading-edge features of the products themselves, and their use in railways throughout
Australasia.

Francesco Rispoli

Ansaldo STS, A Hitachi Group Company

After relatively long periods of operation, the rise of satellite technology and the importance of its great benefits have at
last been recognised as strategic advancements for the train control system business case especially when operations
are in rural and desert areas. The catalysts are a gained confidence in the reliability of satellite technologies and the
unprecedented plans to put into orbit new satellites during the coming years. Furthermore, after decades of steady
innovation in the telecom networks, 5G offers the ultimate solution with millisecond latencies and “network slicing”
capabilities to realize bespoke virtual networks. For these reasons satellite technologies and IP-based communications
are “game changer innovations” for the ERTMS. This paper aims to assess the satellite technology trends, the Ansaldo
STS projects that in Australia have set the world’s bench mark as the early adopter of satellite technology on heavy haul
lines, and the roadmap to exploit new satellite innovations after the positive field tests in Italy. This plan backed by RFI
(Italian Railways Infrastructure operator) aims to contribute to the certification process to implement by 2020 an ERTMS
innovative solution for regional networks based on virtualization of balises through satellite localization, an augmentation
network, and the upgrade of the communication system from GSM-R to a public telecommunications network.

Francesco Rispoli

Ansaldo STS, A Hitachi Group Company

After relatively long periods of operation, the rise of satellite technology and the importance of its great benefits have at
last been recognised as strategic advancements for the train control system business case especially when operations
are in rural and desert areas. The catalysts are a gained confidence in the reliability of satellite technologies and the
unprecedented plans to put into orbit new satellites during the coming years. Furthermore, after decades of steady
innovation in the telecom networks, 5G offers the ultimate solution with millisecond latencies and “network slicing”
capabilities to realize bespoke virtual networks. For these reasons satellite technologies and IP-based communications
are “game changer innovations” for the ERTMS. This paper aims to assess the satellite technology trends, the Ansaldo
STS projects that in Australia have set the world’s bench mark as the early adopter of satellite technology on heavy haul
lines, and the roadmap to exploit new satellite innovations after the positive field tests in Italy. This plan backed by RFI
(Italian Railways Infrastructure operator) aims to contribute to the certification process to implement by 2020 an ERTMS
innovative solution for regional networks based on virtualization of balises through satellite localization, an augmentation
network, and the upgrade of the communication system from GSM-R to a public telecommunications network.

Bob Detering FIRSE

Retired

A look at at IRSE Australasia over the last 70 years

Trevor Moore

Signals Standards Engineer, Australian Rail Track Corporation

The first track circuits were developed in the 1870s. These were used on US Railroads. Over the following years they
were used on railways around the world. There have been substantial developments in the engineering and technology
used in track circuits through to the present time. However, after one hundred and forty five years we are still having
problems with reliable operation of the track circuits in some applications.
This paper will examine the type of trains, track circuit configurations and infrastructure conditions that contribute to the
performance limitations of the track circuit. The paper will cover engineering solutions and recent testing to address the
reliable performance of the track circuits.
The issue is complicated and involves the signalling equipment, rollingstock and the track infrastructure. An
understanding of these issues will assist the signal engineer in addressing solutions for reliable operation.

Alex McGrath

Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA)

The field of resilience engineering explores the mismatch between a system-as-designed, and the actual system as it
operates in the real world, in the presence of shocks, stresses and resource constraints. In signalling systems, the
modelling of component availabilities into system availability leads to the belief that more redundancy is always an asset;
while in a real operating railway, redundancy has at times been an asset to the system and at other times has increased
cost while also decreasing performance and whole-system safety margins.
This paper explores the justification for component and link redundancy in signalling system design alongside the
legislation and body of research on system resilience. It draws on a series of ideas from the field of resilience
engineering, and real-world rail and signalling examples, to explore the issues. Alarm architecture, lifecycle maintenance
planning, and criticality assessment are provided as concrete guidance for how to design a resilient signalling system.
However, true resilient behaviour depends on the context, organisational culture and human behaviours, and the real
railway as an evolving complex system.

Alex McGrath

Level Crossing Removal Authority (LXRA)

The field of resilience engineering explores the mismatch between a system-as-designed, and the actual system as it
operates in the real world, in the presence of shocks, stresses and resource constraints. In signalling systems, the
modelling of component availabilities into system availability leads to the belief that more redundancy is always an asset;
while in a real operating railway, redundancy has at times been an asset to the system and at other times has increased
cost while also decreasing performance and whole-system safety margins.
This paper explores the justification for component and link redundancy in signalling system design alongside the
legislation and body of research on system resilience. It draws on a series of ideas from the field of resilience
engineering, and real-world rail and signalling examples, to explore the issues. Alarm architecture, lifecycle maintenance
planning, and criticality assessment are provided as concrete guidance for how to design a resilient signalling system.
However, true resilient behaviour depends on the context, organisational culture and human behaviours, and the real
railway as an evolving complex system.

Richard Flinders

Siemens Ltd.

This is a paper exploring the concept of the digital
point machine, or more correctly the effects the
Digital Railway may have on the development of
and requirements for trackside equipment!
The move to a connected system for railway
control will certainly open up opportunities to also
connect the current ‘dumb’ devices but what will
the new scope for this connected equipment be?
Will changes be driven by digitalization or will
commercial and social changes have more
impact?
Will there be significant changes at all?

Richard Flinders

Siemens Ltd.

This is a paper exploring the concept of the digital
point machine, or more correctly the effects the
Digital Railway may have on the development of
and requirements for trackside equipment!
The move to a connected system for railway
control will certainly open up opportunities to also
connect the current ‘dumb’ devices but what will
the new scope for this connected equipment be?
Will changes be driven by digitalization or will
commercial and social changes have more
impact?
Will there be significant changes at all?

Christopher Whiteside and Heather Moody

Siemens Ltd

Dr. Rhena Helmus

Siemens AG

Rail-based systems are exposed to various operational demands brought about either by high mechanical loading or
external influences. At the same time, billions of passengers and freight goods rely on rail systems every day. Safety,
availability, and reliability are key for a competitive rail-based transport. To capture any abnormal behaviour during
operations, data is generated by various sources for a better understanding of interacting phenomena and to prevent
component failure in advance. In order to move forward to a smart infrastructure, insights gained by the analysis of
historical and real time data have to be turned into actions.