INTEROPERABILITY ON THE TRANS-EUROPEAN RAILWAY NETWORK
The trans-European railway network, as well
as the components and its subsystems have to meet the "essential
requirements" with regard to the safety traffic, system flexibility, the
health of the passengers, the environment protection, the technical
compatibility and its exploitation. Thus, there are aimed two concepts in
point of the interoperability: technical interoperability and operational
interoperability.
Consequently, the fulfillment of the essential established requirements
supposes, in fact, the elaboration and the technical achievement of all the
conditions of technical and operational regulation in the above-mentioned
directions.
Safety traffic
The designing, construction, assembling,
maintenance and monitoring of the critical components and especially of the
elements that are part of the trains traffic have to guarantee the safety
level corresponding to the objectives established for the network, including
the damage situations.
The parameters involved in the wheel-track contact has to respect the
stability criteria necessary for the operation, in order to guarantee a
traffic in complete safety conditions at maximal authorized speed.
The components utilized have to withstand at the specific, normal and
exceptional strains, during the operation. The repercussions on the safety
caused by the accidental damages have to be limited through appropriate means.
The design of the fixed equipment and of the rolling stock, as well as the
choice of the materials utilized has to take into consideration the limitation
of the occurrence, propagation and fire and smoke effects, in fire case.
The devices meant to be shunted by the users have to be conceived in such a
manner that they will not compromise their safe exploitation and their health
and the security, in the predictable case of utilization that do not meet the
displayed instructions.
Liability and availability
The monitoring and the maintenance of the
fixed or mobile equipment, which take part at the train operation have to be
organized, achieved and quantified in order to maintain their operation in the
stipulated conditions. Health The susceptible materials, through the way of
utilization, that represent a danger for the health of the persons that have
access to them do not have to be used in the trains and on the railway
infrastructure. Environment protection
The impact on the environment due to the
performance and the exploitation of the conventional trans-European railway
system has to be assessed and took into consideration the designing system in
accordance with the community dispositions in force. Technical compatibility The technical features of the infrastructure
and of the fixed equipment have to be compatible one with the other, as well
as with those of the trains that will be used in the conventional
trans-European railway system. If respecting those features is quite
difficult, in certain parts of the network, we can enforce temporary solutions
that will guarantee the compatibility in the future. Ioan Buciuman
The choice, the materialization and the exploitation of these materials has to
aim the limitation of the smoke emission or noxious gases, in fire case.
The materials used in the trains and on the railway infrastructures have to
provide the lack of smoke emission or noxious gases for the environment,
especially in fire case.
The rolling stock and the supplying systems have to be designed and produced
in order to cope from the electromagnetic point of view with the
installations, equipment and public and private networks interfering with.
The exploitation of the conventional trans-European railway system has to
respect the levels regulated for the sound pollution.
The exploitation of the conventional trans-European railway system do not have
to produce in the soil a level of vibrations inadmissible for the activities
and the environments in the proximity of the infrastructure, during normal
operation.
Within the Romanian Railways, in order to integrate in the trans-European
railway network, there are made efforts to rehabilitate the Corridor IV (in
the first stage). Thus, in order to meet the essential requirements, there has
to be completed the rehabilitation of the railway section and of the contact
line, the modernization of the signaling-centralization-interlocking system,
as well as the telecommunication equipment.
The main objectives of the modernization strategy for the railway equipment
are:
- The promotion of the electronic interlocking systems (CE) in the big
stations: Ploiesti Sud - CE equipment SIMIS W type, produced by the German
company SIEMENS AG; Bucharest Nord Complex, Brasov, Arad, Timisoara Nord
railway stations CE equipment ESTW L90 type, produced by the German company
ALCATEL SEL;
- IT technology provision for the command devices and for the electrodynamics
centralized equipment (CED) in small stations. There are in development stage
two technical solutions: the first one, Railway Infrastructure Section of AFER
- for Timisu de Sus station, and the other one, at SMD PORD IMPEX SRL company,
pursuant to its homologation being enforced in the network;
- The assembling of the electronic interlocking system (CE) in big stations
and the IT technology provision for the command devices and electrodynamics
centralized equipment (CED) in small stations, in order to provide digital
information in the system, favorable for the utilization of the spare part of
the fiber optics capacity of telecommunication, in order to introduce on the
Corridor IV the dispatcher system of the national railway traffic;
- The promotion of the modern train control system ETCS (European Train
Control System), level 1, absolutely necessary in the conditions of increased
speed over 120 km/h on Corridor IV, as an extension of the functions of the
traffic lights equipment.
We have to mention that the system has three operational levels of
implementation, staged according to the requirements. Level 1 based on the
fixed block and on the signals from the track, automatic protection system
utilizing the intermittent transmission (through Euro-beacon) or
half-continuous (through eurollop) between the track and the train, in order
to achieve a permanent control of the train speed. Level 2 - based on the
fixed block and the cab display, the lateral signals being operational; the
system performs the permanent control function of the speed, making use of
bi-directional radio-communications of continuous type and intermittent
transmission for the train localization function. Level 3 - an automatic
system of train control, performing the permanent speed control on the mobile
block, making use of the bi-directional radio-communications of continuous
type and intermittent transmission, and the train localization function and
the checking of its integrity are performed by on board equipment. Due to the
multiple operational relations possibilities between the track and the
vehicle, through the enforcement of ETCS system there have occurred two more
transitory levels:
a) level 0 - the train is equipped with ETCS and operates on a railway section
without ETCS, without a national system or with systems that are in testing
stage for the reception;
b) SMT level - the train is equipped with ETCS, operates on a railway section
equipped with a national system, the train interfering it through a
transmission way specific to this national system - SMT.
The control of the current line with axles counting: pilot system implemented
on Sibot - Cugir section, Zp 30 CA type, supplied by ALCATEL SEL company,
which uses the track sensors SK 30 type and a central unit EAK 30 CA type.
The system can meet the following requirements of the railway network:
a) the control of the current line between two stations without BLA;
b) the control of the current line between two stations equipped with BLA;
c) automatic command of a BAT (SAT) equipment on a current line without BLA.
The implementation of the mobile communications for the railway (GSM-R): pilot
project on Bucharest - Ploiesti railway section, performed by SIEMENS company,
being operational after the allocation of the frequencies by MapN.
The replacement of the mechanical equipment for railway safety with
electrodynamics centralized equipment in a simplified shape, through the
elimination from schemas of the shunting operations.
The assembling of the telecommunication fiber optics and the implementation of
the equipment for the transit to the digital communications.
The IT technology provision for the selection equipment through the
enforcement of a solution provided by ISPCF.
The modernization of BAT equipment, and, respectively, of SAT equipment,
though the homologation of the equipment produced at AEROFINA SA.
The replacement of the switch point electro-mechanisms EM4 type with
electro-mechanisms EM5R type.The replacement of the track circuits in two
phases with electronic track circuits in four phase C4-64.
The replacement and the completion of the commutation equipment in the
electrical hauling substations, respectively in the sectioning positions and
sub-sectioning, with vacuum switches and charge dividers.
The implementation of some new secondary circuits, based on the IT technology,
in the energy supplying equipment.
The IT technology provision for the railway energetic dispatcher.
The performance of the operational regulations supposes the harmonization of
the railway regulations specific to the Romanian Railways with those of the
member states of the European Union. In this respect, The Directive 2001/16/CE
of the European Parliament and of the Council, since March 19, 2001, with
regard to the interoperability of the trans-European railway system, is
compulsory. According to this directive, on their own territory, member states
can not forbid, restrain or hinder the promotion of the interoperability
components in order to utilize them within the conventional trans-European
railway system when they meet the dispositions of the respective directive.
