ERTMS Evolution Safety Installations

SBB Infrastruktur

Bern, January 2023 to December 2023
DSTW

Targeted investment planning to accelerate the future cab signaling rollout (FSS rollout).

In the years 2017 to 2020, the Smartrail 4.0 program was driven forward under the leadership of SBB. The aim of this conceptual task was to develop a clear target image for the digitization of the Swiss rail network and the systems used for this purpose.
 
With the program Evolution ERTMS Safety Installations, SBB is now combining the guiding principle from Smartrail 4.0 (SR40) with the ERTMS evolution strategy from BAV to proactively develop economically viable proposals for the effective implementation of ERTMS. In this context, a particular challenge is the fact that external signaling, in parts dating back to the 1980s, are not confrom to the current set of rules. Specifically, the Migration path for today's interlockings and outdoor installations towards the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) based on ETCS L3 and FRMCS will be defined. The overall goal is to determine the optimum between interlocking life-extension measures and interlocking replacement. Therefore, 15 installations with up to 66 Simis-C installations are examined, whether life-extension measures or (partial) replacement of the installations represents the most economically viable option for SBB.
 
The experts of NEXTRAIL support the program Evolution ERTMS safety installations as risk analysts / safety managers in both topis (life extension or migration). With the assessement of safety-relevant questions, as well as with the preparation of procurement and approval issues.

Key areas of service

  • Development of measures to extend the life cycles of existing signaling systems until they are replaced as part of the industrialized FSS rollout

  • Development of measures to ensure availability of spare parts and know-how

  • Elaboration of measures for the economical and fast replacement of existing installations with optical signaling

  • Elaboration of the migration path towards cab signaling

  • Risk analysis for signalling and railway installations that are not conform to the rules, ton enable a smart migration to cab signalling

  • Development of a generic SBB internal code of practices that can be applied to all individual cases independently of safety management in order to make a safety-relevant statement on possible adaptations to the external systems

Special features

The quantitative explicit risk analysis through the application of the SBB risk concept (use of marginal costs) and the creation of a continuous, standard-compliant document management with Polarion for safety-relevant documentation incl. hazard log distinguishes this project.

Related projects

Contact person

Here you will find your contact person for Safety Management
Expertin Dr.-Ing. Sonja-Lara Bepperling

Dr Sonja-Lara Bepperling

Member of the Executive Board, Head of Railway Safety, Registered inspector for equivalent safety and risk assessment
Frankfurt am Main office
Dr Sonja-Lara Bepperling is a member of the Executive Board and Head of Railway Safety at NEXTRAIL GmbH. For 15 years, she has been a proven expert in operational and technical risk analyses in the railway sector – in control-command and signalling system in particular. She possesses methodical expertise in risk and hazard analyses as well as in-depth knowledge of the processes involved in the approval processes.