EC Adopts New Train Signalling Standards for Europe
March 31, 2006
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Locomotives that operate across borders still need to have several on-board systems that can process the information sent by the different ground systems. This increases production costs and breakdown risks. Once a locomotive has been designed, it is also extremely costly and sometimes impossible to add new on-board systems. This is why most trains still have to stop at the border station to change the locomotive.
The deployment of ERTMS, which was developed in the early 1990s under the European research framework programmes and then supported with funding earmarked for the trans-European networks, is a major step forward in developing the interoperability and safety of the rail network.
The installation of this system is already mandatory on all new railway rolling stock intended for the high-speed network. For the conventional railways, the same will now apply to new rolling stock on the priority routes of the trans-European network and to locomotives that run on them.
Compliance with the interoperability specifications in general and use of ERTMS in particular will also be essential to obtain European community funding. The logical consequence of opening up the market to competition is that all railway undertakings must be able to benefit from having railway infrastructure that has been financed from European spending, not only those that have specific national equipment.
The European Railway Agency must now ensure that the specifications are adapted to technical progress. The European coordinator will see to it that deployment takes place in a coordinated manner in order to achieve interoperability as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost.
These specifications are the result of an unprecedented effort by the European railways. On the EC's initiative, hundreds of experts representing infrastructure managers, rail companies and manufacturers put their skills towards a common objective and worked together on the development of specifications that met with the approval of all stakeholders in the railway industry.
See also:
IP/05/831 - Five billion to be invested in rail signalling
MEMO/05/235 - The ERTMS in 10 questions
IP/05/321 - ERTMS: a major European project for the rail networks
Source: European Commission.