Today,
trains are equipped with up to six different navigational
systems. Each is extremely costly and takes up space on-board.
A train crossing from one European country to another must
switch the operating standards as it crosses the border.
All this adds to travel time and operational and maintenance
costs.
With trends for privatisation fuelling governmental
calls for accountability, now more than ever, operators
must be competitive. Railways need to offer speed and
convenience, not only for very high speed trains, but
for all mainline trains and equally for freight operations.
Following the decision taken by the European Transport
minister in December 1989, the EC.
embarked upon a project to analyse the problems relating
to signaling and train control. At the end of 1990, ERRI created
a group of railway experts (A200) to develop the requirements
of ETCS. In June 1991, Industry (Eurosig)
and Railways (UIC, ERRI A200)
agreed the principles of tight co-operation in order to
consider the requirement specifications as the base for
industrial development.
The project framework included
a new on-board equipment based on open computer architecture
(EUROCAB), a new discontinuous system for data transmission,
(EUROBALISE) and a new continuous transmission system (EURORADIO).
At the end of 1993, the EU council issued an Interoperability
Directive and a decision was taken to create a structure
to define the Technical Specification for Interoperability.
At the beginning of the 4th Framwork Programme, in 1995,
the EC defined
a global strategy for the further development of ERTMS
with the aim to prepare its future implementation on the
European Rail Network. The global strategy described in
the "Master Plan of Activities" included the
development and validation phase. The objective of the
validation phase was to perform full scale tests on sites
located in different countries (France, Germany and Italy).
In the summer of 1998, Unisig,
comprising the European Signaling companies was formed
to finalise the specifications. The Class P SRS was delivered
on 23rd April 1999. With the final signature on ERTMS specification,
Class 1, on 25th April 2000, ERTMS has finally arrived
providing substantially higher performance levels for the
railways.
Great success has already been achieved to test the interoperability
on EMSET and Vienna-Budapest trials. Test Track Italy has
carried out trials in 2001. The revised specifications
SRS 2.2.2 have been approved in February 2002 and are on
the way to be introduced in the Technical Specifications
for Interoperability. There are a number of commercial
projects at varying stages like the West Coast Main Line,
the HSL-Zuid, Rome-Naples, Switzerland, Berlin-Halle-Leipzig,
Athens and Madrid - Lleida, that have been awarded and
partially financed by the EC.
A joint effort from the European Union and the member
states to finance ERTMS/ETCS has been implemented to put
in place as quickly as possible the Relevant Net. In 2005,
the European Commission initiated a project to study in
detail the costs and benefits of six selected corridors
in Europe. Karel Vinck has been nominated as European Coordinator
to finalise this work by March 2006. UNIFE and its members
represent the supply industry in this group. |