Last week UIC held an onsite demonstration of the new traffic management for low traffic rail lines, SATLOC, for high-level representatives from ERA (Europeean Railway Agency), SNCF, CFR SA and the Romanian Safety Authority (AFER).
A pilot project has been set up in Romania on a secondary 35 km branch line from Brasov to Zarnesti.
A SATLOC pilot project was achieved under a GSA (Galileo Supervisory Authority) FP7 financing programme, together with a consortium composed of infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, universities and the supply industry.
Nowadays, SATLOC innovations ensure the following:
- Absolute location of trains with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System), route map and virtual balises
- Train tracking function to keep train and track in close-loop regulation/interaction for high safety target with lower SIL components
- Use of UMTS-LTE (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System-Long-Term Evolution) high performance mobile radio in VPN (Virtual Private Network) technology for data transport at marginal cost/cab radio on UMTS with IP address
- Adaptation of operations to maximise the effect of technology and reduce cost (trailable switches system for crossing the trains, de-centralised shunting).
- Preservation of the existing ATP (Automatic Train Protection) to secure the functionality in fall back situations (i.e. trailable switches) and run on the classical mainline and ETCS L1 network.
This could be the basis for the future ETCS L3 specifications.
Mr Marc Antoni, Director of the Rail System Department, stressed the importance of interfacing between SATLOC with ETCS (registering ETCS trains on the SATLOC equipped lines and vice versa) and application of SATLOC for the maintenance machines (yellow machines).
On this occasion Mr Josef Doppelbauer, ERA Executive Director, met the Romanian Ministry of Transportation Mr Dan Marian Costescu ,who expressed a keen interest in SATLOC as a solution to maintain 4000 km of secondary lines in operation, providing a service for this isolated area.
UIC, ERA and SNCF delegate met the management staff of AFER (Autoritatea Feroviara Romana-Romanian Railway Authority) who work with the SATLOC consortium for further homologation.
Mr Doppelbauer took the opportunity to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with AFER concerning cooperation between AFER and ERA for the implementation of the technical pillar of the Fourth Railway Package, recently approved by the European Parliament.
