Alstom ERTMS test track in the U.K. (that used to be named “Old Dalby test site”) is an established single track railway test site situated on the Nottinghamshire /Leicestershire border in central England.

The test site (now called AMTC : Alstom Midlands Test Centre) is completely isolated from the operational railway allowing exceptional opportunities for unimpeded testing of the both vehicles and railway systems.

A major upgrade of the site has been made to allow running of 200 km/h electric trains and to construct a 6.75km double track section for the ERTMS testing.

The site office, sidings and maintenance facilities are located at Old Dalby. The Control Centre Building is located to the south of the site at Asfordby with the main maintenance facilities for the trains under test.

The double track section to be installed (i.e. the ERTMS test section) starts just to the north of Old Dalby and extends to the start of the tunnel at Stanton. The north portal of Grimston tunnel and the south portal of Stanton tunnel define the extent of the double track section. This provides a test section of 6.75 km that is considered adequate for the ERTMS Level 1 and Level 2 tests. Both the main 17.5 km single line section and the 6.75 km long test section and test siding have been electrified at 25 kV.

A 'virtual' diamond crossing is included but this will not be physically installed on the trial site. It will only be incorporated in the interlocking. The nominal line speed on the test section at AMTC will be 65 km/h. The siding on the test section is located in the old goods yards at Widmerpool Station. ERTMS Tests will take place both on the section and on the 17.5 km line.
The arrangement of the track at AMTC will provides a two track section along which trains can pass, at speed, in opposite directions.

The track also has many features of the operational railway in respect of tunnels, bridges and cuttings, etc. The 17.5 km high speed section is already used predominantly for testing new high speed trains, but will also be made available for further ERTMS tests to be conducted alongside those that will be carried out on the dedicated test section.
Tests to be carried out on this site include transitions between ERTMS Levels 1 & 2.

The installation of the control system at the Alstom Midlands Test Centre site has been undertaken in the following sequence:

	Conventional WCML signaling on the test section,
	ERTMS Level 1 overlaid on the conventional signaling on the test section,
	ERTMS telecommunications on the 17.5 km section,
	ERTMS Level 2 overlaid on the conventional signaling on the test section.

It is also worth to notice that in the U.K. the name “TCS” for “Train Control System” is used for the new signaling for West Coast Main Line

Time scales

	Infrastructure complete - April 2001
	ERTMS L1 installation complete - June 2001
	ERTMS L1 Integration - June - December 2001
	ERTMS L1 Functional testing - January - July 2002
	ERTMS L2 installation complete - December 2001
	ERTMS L2 Integration - December 2001 - June 2002
	ERTMS L2 Functional testing - June 2002 - April 2003

Another product which is involved there is TASS, the “Tilt Authorisation and Speed Supervision system”. Some background about TASS: Virgin Trains ordered two fleets of tilting trains from ALSTOM (for high-seed operation) and Bombardier (for cross-country lines). These trains will be equipped with TASS, supplied by ALSTOM, in order to control tilt permission and to supervise enhanced speeds in curves.

TASS on-board equipment is based on ALSTOM-made ETCS "EVC", in a version not including all hardware and software which would be required for ETCS, and a simplified odometry. The track-side equipment for TASS is itself only made of fixed Eurobalises (beacons) giving information about the track ahead to the train (in fact basically the location of the balise), i.e. to allow tilt or not, what speed the train may follow, etc.

TASS demonstration has now started, as a step to further test the tilting trains themselves.