Politics in Britain is getting strange when the first speaker at the Conservative Party’s annual conference talked about how the Tories would rather build high-speed train links than a new runway at Heathrow. Isn’t this the party that failed to invest in railways throughout the 1980s? Old-school Conservatives from back then might also get upset were they to realise that if the plan put forward by Shadow Transport Secretary Theresa Villiers – to build a new high-speed rail line between Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London – comes to fruition, the line will have to adopt the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS).
Funded by the EU, ERTMS does away with trackside signals – at least in the higher-level versions – as train control becomes the domain of computer-based radio systems. The motivation behind the new signalling technology was to make it easier for trains to go from country to country in Europe, without having to change locomotives or have multiple systems installed for different signalling regimes. It is now a part of law that railways in Europe will have to adopt ERTMS for new and updated railway lines.
The technology will certainly do much for 'interoperability' as the jargon has it, but the standard has also proved to be a great marketing tool for the European companies that actually wrote it. Railway operators around the world are also evaluating and implementing the new standard. These train operators would show little interest in ERTMS if interoperability were the only benefit it delivers. Indeed, given our island status, interoperability is less of a priority for the UK, although it will help rail freight to counter the relentless increase in road transport.
Better safety is one benefit that train operators also look for in a signalling system. ERTMS will deliver on that front. However, the real gains are in the opportunity to cram more trains on to the railways and the reduced maintenance costs that come when you have a signalling system that does away with the need to maintain so much trackside hardware.
Perhaps unexpectedly, the globalisation of ERTMS as a European standard has opened up a bigger market for the EU’s manufacturers of trains and signalling systems. As the ERTMS web site puts it: “There are currently more than 30,000km of tracks and 5,000 vehicles in service or contracted to be equipped with ERTMS in 27 countries in Europe, Americas, Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.”
China has decided to implement ERTMS on three main high-speed lines. The technology will also feature on the Chennai-Gummudipundi line in southern India and the Delhi-Agra section of the Northern/North Central Railway. South Korea is implementing ERTMS on major routes, as is Taiwan. The 'ERTMS Atlas' put together by the International Union of Railways also shows schemes for Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
It turns out that the UK is lagging behind many countries in the adoption of ERTMS. This is partly because the standard wasn’t ready when today’s major projects got going, but Britain doesn’t have to wait for the Conservatives to win an election before the technology reaches Network Rail. Among other improvements, the upgrade to the Cambrian line between Shrewsbury, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli will be a test bed for Network Rail to see how ERTMS will work in the UK, alongside existing signalling systems. It seems unlikely that the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative party will want to picket the project. Perhaps they will all be manning the barricades at Heathrow instead.
Further information:
International Union of Railways
http://www.uic.asso.fr/
Categories: Commentary ,
Comments
All comments
You need to be registered with the IET to leave a comment. Please log in or register as a new user.