Abstract
This chapter describes the foundations and principles of railway signalling systems and their main key elements and provides an accurate description of the main European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) properties that can be affected by the introduction of the GNSS technology. In order to bring the readers to understand the complexity of the railway environment and the main differences with respect to civil aviation and maritime environments, Sects. 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 provide an overview of the applicable European Commission Regulations and of the complete Control-Command and Signalling System suitable for obtaining the Single European Railway Area, Sects. 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 outline the reference ERTMS System Architecture with emphasis on the interfaces and the functions to guarantee the interoperability requirements, and Sects. 6.3.5 and 6.3.6 accurately describe the ERTMS dependability requirements such as safety, reliability and availability along with the related reference Mission Profile. Furthermore, Sect. 6.4 describes the current process for assessing the conformity of a single ERTMS constituent and for verifying the ERTMS Command and Control and Signalling Subsystems. Finally, Sect. 6.6 provides a quick description of the on-board train environment with respect to radio frequency interferences, multipath and non-line-of-sight conditions to outline how these phenomena, considered negligible in the civil aviation environment, have a critical role in the railway environment.
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Notes
- 1.
The trans-European network comprises transport infrastructure, traffic management systems and positioning and navigation systems. The transport infrastructure includes road, rail and inland waterway networks, motorways of the sea, seaports and inland waterway ports, airports and other interconnection points between modal networks. A complete description is provided in [16].
- 2.
Some IMs have implemented the radio infill functions by means of Central Radio Infill safe platforms installed in large stations.
- 3.
The balise 1 telegram has the specific variable \(M_{DUP}\) Subset 026−8 [7] set to indicate that the information is duplicated in the balise after balise 1. On the other side, the balise 2 telegram has the specific variable \(M_{DUP}\) set to indicate that the information is duplicated in the balise before balise 2.
- 4.
Subset 026 provides the complete description of the data consistency checks to be executed on the information received from each balise (i.e. information named balise telegram), from the complete set of telegrams received from the set of balises in the Balise Group (i.e. complete set of telegrams named Balise Group message), from linked balises groups. Some examples of data consistency problems are named: a balise is missed inside a Balise Group, a balise is detected but no balise telegram is decoded, at least a variable inside a Balise Group message has an invalid value.
- 5.
In general, train trip is initiated when a train erroneously passes a specified location, named End Of Authority (EOA)/Limit Of Authority (LOA), and causes an immediate application of the emergency brake and a procedure to acknowledge the event. The emergency brake implies the application of a predefined brake force in the shortest time to stop the train with a defined level of brake performance.
- 6.
Service brake implies the application of an adjustable brake force to control the speed of the train, including stop and temporary immobilization.
- 7.
Balise Groups, which are marked as unlinked, can never be used as LRBG.
- 8.
The active cab is the cab associated with an ERTMS/ETCS on-board equipment, from which the traction is controlled. The train orientation cannot be affected by the direction controller position.
- 9.
Train integrity is the level of belief in the train being complete and not having left coaches or wagons behind.
- 10.
It is calculated by subtracting the distance between the active Eurobalise antenna of the BTM installed on the train and the front end of the train from the min safe front-end position.
- 11.
The emergency brake system provides a guaranteed maximum deceleration as stated by the train manufacture; the emergency brake command, activated by the on-board platform, can be released at standstill only. On the other end, the service brake system provides a non-safe brake system; the service brake command, activated by the on-board platform, can be released when the corresponding revocation condition is met. When the application of the service brake fails, the emergency brake command is normally issued.
- 12.
The section of line in advance of a stop signal that must be unoccupied and, where necessary, locked before and during a signalled running movement to the rear of the signal to avoid an accident if the train brakes do not perform as expected and the train passes the End Of Authority. It is normally a piece of track beyond the Danger Point.
- 13.
It is common practice in many railway and metro systems to use overlap in the entry route. Overlap provides additional free space beyond the stopping point, with guarantee that no movement is allowed in that area. The purpose of overlap is to allow easy stop of train at platform and improve safety of operation; a typical case is in stations where platform is almost as long as trains, arriving train may exceed stopping point and overlap guarantees that this shall cause no safety issue.
- 14.
The MRSP is a description of the most restrictive speed restrictions the train must obey on a given piece of track.
- 15.
This is a design commitment that must be guaranteed and verified.
- 16.
This is a design commitment that must be guaranteed and verified.
- 17.
The analysis assumes that Balise Groups are composed of at least two Balises when they have to transmit safety data.
- 18.
A Notified Body is an organization designated by an EU country to assess the conformity of certain products before being placed on the market. These bodies carry out tasks related to conformity assessment procedures set out in the applicable legislation, when a third party is required. The European Commission publishes a list of such notified bodies [Decision 768/2008/EC].
- 19.
Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 339/93 (OJ L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 30).
- 20.
In accordance with the DIRECTIVE 2012/34/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 21 November 2012 establishing a Single European Railway Area (recast), an applicant means a Railway Undertaking or an international grouping of Railway Undertakings or other persons or legal entities, such as competent authorities under Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 and shippers, freight forwarders and combined transport operators, with a public-service or commercial interest in procuring infrastructure capacity.
- 21.
Directive 2008/57/EC [11] reports the minimum contents of the required documentation (named Technical File).
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Sabina, S., Poli, F., Kassabian, N. (2018). The Rail Environment: A Challenge for GNSS. In: Lo Presti, L., Sabina, S. (eds) GNSS for Rail Transportation. PoliTO Springer Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79084-8_6
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