Today, trains are equipped with up to seven 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.

Together with other technical differences – for instance in terms of rail gauge, electricity voltage, rolling stock design, etc. – the existence of more than 20 train control systems in Europe has always been a major obstacle to the development of international rail transport. For this reason, the development of a common European system started to be discussed as early as the late 1980s.

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.

The specifications were subsequently reviewed to include additional functionalities and better meet the needs from the railway companies and infrastructure managers. The specifications currently in force are contained in the SRS 2.3.0d, which was adopted by the European Commission in April 2008. To ensure that ERTMS is constantly adapted to the railway’s needs, technical specifications are maintained under the lead of the European Railway Agency in cooperation with the signalling industry and railway stakeholders

In parallel to this specification work, a joint effort from the European Union and the member states to finance ERTMS/ETCS has been implemented. Two successive Memorandums of Understanding were signed in 2005 and 2008 by the European Commission and the railway stakeholders to further deploy ERTMS on Europe’s rail network. Six ‘priority’ corridors (see map) were identified for the development of ERTMS, whilst specially crafted financial incentives were designed to support both infrastructure and onboard installation. Karel Vinck has been nominated as European coordinator to work jointly with the rail sector on further deploying ERTMS along the EU’s rail network.