Expert – Dr Michael Leining

The starting point for the study was the pilot project of the Digital S-Bahn Hamburg (DSH) with the world’s first implementation of ATO over ETCS with GoA 2. The purpose of NEXTRAIL’s contract was to analyse whether digitisation of the entire S-Bahn network in the Hanseatic city is feasible within the next ten years and what technical, qualitative and economic effects this will generate. To this end, the necessary technical systems were first identified and the corresponding, detailed planning principles were drawn up. On this basis, capacity studies (by ViaCon) were carried out and the costs of efficiently retrofitting the entire infrastructure and all vehicles were determined. Backed up by a concrete roll-out plan, a clear recommendation for migration was made. It has been proven that the digitisation of the entire network will lead to a lasting improvement in operational quality by increasing the capacity and stability of the S-Bahn system.

Based on the findings from the feasibility studies on the infrastructure equipment of the Digital node Stuttgart project, NEXTRAIL was commissioned to test the technical feasibility and timeframe of converting all necessary vehicles to the ETCS, ATO GoA 2 and FRMCS technology standards. At that time, it was clear that the positive effects of the digital equipment of the node could only be realised by retrofitting all the vehicles in use.

For this reason, the vehicle retrofitting must be carried out at the same time as the digital node goes into operation by the end of 2025. The purpose of the contract with NEXTRAIL was to discuss the technical feasibility of retrofitting all relevant vehicle ranges in cooperation with the respective manufacturers, to analyse and allocate the necessary capacities and costs for the retrofitting and to verify the corresponding schedule. It was demonstrated that retrofitting is technically demanding in individual cases but feasible in terms of time, as well as how the complexity of the retrofitting project can be reduced and what economic impact the provision of replacement vehicles has in order to maintain unimpeded operations during the retrofitting process.

For the world’s first pilot project with ATO over ETCS Level 2 with GoA 2 in real operation, NEXTRAIL provided the safety and approval manager for the infrastructure division. As part of this project, the ATO over ETCS system with GoA 2 was approved for the first time, evaluated for safety and successfully put into operation. At the same time, it marks the world’s first implementation of the German regulation on granting operating authorisation for the railway system (EIGV) and the testing of the German sectoral guideline for the authorisation assessment of signal, telecommunication and electrotechnical facilities.

With Europe’s Rail project, the European Commission aims to raise the standardisation of control and safety technology in Europe to the next level. The nucleus of the standardisation and modularisation of signalling technology is the EULYNX project, which harmonises the most important interfaces between interlockings and their surrounding systems. EULYNX is more or less the USB cable of interlocking technology. Proprietary interfaces and thus costly adaptations of new components to the interlocking technology are now a thing of the past.

With the RCA initiative, a reference architecture for all interfaces of the command and control technology (CCS) was subsequently developed by the European infrastructure managers. The reference architecture also contains important technology modules, such as high-precision positioning or digital map, which ensure optimum capacity on the rails and rapid rollout. To this end, major improvements for ETCS have been proposed. Based on a standardised reference architecture, RCA has demonstrated for the first time that harmonisation of the operational rules of the European railways is possible.

Key performance indicators

• Stakeholder management
• Interface standardisation
• Harmonisation of operational rules
• Implementation speed

Special features
In addition to the cooperation of major European infrastructure managers, the approaches were discussed openly and constructively with the European signalling industry. In Europe’s Rail project, all stakeholders are now working on the future of Europe’s digital signalling.