European Train Control System - History

History

European railway networks grew as separate national networks with little more in common than standard gauge. Notable differences include different voltages, loading gauge, coupling systems, signalling and control systems. By the end of the 1980s there were 14 national standards train control systems in use across the European Union, and the advent of high speed trains showed that signalling based on lineside signals is insufficient.

Both factors led to efforts to reduce the time and cost of cross-border traffic. On 4 and 5 December 1989, a working group, including Transport Ministers, resolved a master plan for a trans-European high-speed rail network, which was the first time a European Train Control System was suggested. The Commission communicated the decision to the European Council, which approved the plan in its resolution of 17 December 1990. This led to a resolution on 91/440/EEC as of 29 July 1991, which mandated the creation of a requirements list for interoperability in high-speed rail transport. The rail manufacturing industry and rail network operators had agreed on creation of interoperability standards in June 1991. Until 1993 the organizational framework was created to start technical specifications that would be published as TSI standards (Technical Specifications for Interoperability). The mandate for TSI was resolved by 93/38/EEC. In 1995 a development plan first mentioned the creation of the European Rail Traffic Management System.

The specification was written in 1996 in response to EU Council Directive 96/48/EC99 of 23 July 1996 on interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system. First the European Railway Research Institute was instructed to formulate the specification and about the same time the ERTMS User Group was formed from six railway operators that took over the lead role in the specification. The standardisation went on for the next two years and it was felt to be slow for some industry partners - 1998 saw the formation of the UNISIG (Union of Signalling Industry) including Alstom, Ansaldo, Bombardier, Invensys, Siemens and Thales which were to take over the finalization of the standard. In July 1998 the SRS5a (System Requirement Specification 5a) documents were published that formed the baseline for technical specifications. UNISIG provided for corrections and enhancements of the baseline specification leading to the "Class P" specification in April 1999.

The baseline specification has been tested by six railway companies since 1999 as part of the European Rail Traffic Management System The railway companies defined some extended requirements that were included to ETCS (e.g. RBC-Handover and track profile information) leading to the Class 1 Version 2.0.0 specification of ETCS that was published in April 2000. Further specification continued through a number of drafts until UNISIG published the SUBSET-026 defining the current implementation of ETCS signalling equipment - this Class 1 Version 2.2.2 was accepted by the European Commission in decision 2002/731/EEC as mandatory for high-speed rail and in decision 2004/50/EEC as mandatory for conventional rail. The SUBSET-026 is defined from eight chapters where chapter seven defines the ETCS language and chapter eight describes the balise telegram structure of ETCS Level 1. Later UNISIG published the corrections as SUBSET-108 also known as Class 1 Version 2.2.2 "+" that was accepted in decision 2006/679/EEC.

The earlier ETCS specification contain a lot of optional elements that limited interoperability. The Class 1 specifications were revised in the following year leading to the Version 2.3.0 document series that was made mandatory by the European Commission in decision 2007/153/EEC on 9 March 2007. The Annex A describes the technical specifications on interoperability for high-speed (HS) and conventional rail (CR) transport. Using Version 2.3.0 a number of railway operators started to deploy ETCS on a large scale for example the Italian Sistema Controllo Marcia Treno is based on ETCS Level 1 balises. Further development concentrated on compatibility specification with the earlier "Class B" systems leading to specifications like EuroZUB that continued to use the national rail management on top of Eurobalises for a transitional period. Following the experience in railway operation the ERA (European Railway Agency) published a revised specification Class 1 Version 2.3.0 D ("debugged") that was accepted by the European Commission in July 2008.

The final ETCS is divided up into nine different equipment and functional levels. The definition of the level depends on how the route is equipped and the way in which information is transmitted to the train. The movement authority (“permission to proceed”) and the corresponding route information are transmitted to the train and displayed in the cab ("cab signalling"). A vehicle fitted with complete ERTMS/ETCS equipment (EuroCab) and functionality can operate on any ETCS route without any technical restrictions.

While some countries switched to ETCS, German and French railway operators had already introduced a modern type of train control system, so they would gain no benefit. Instead ideas were introduced on new modes like "Limited Supervision" (known at least since 2004) that would allow for a low-cost variant, a new and superior model for braking curves, a cold movement optimization and additional track description options. These ideas were compiled into a "baseline 3" series by the ERA, published as a Class 1 Version 3.0.0 proposal on 23 December 2008. The first consolidation (3.1.0) of the baseline 3 proposal was published by ERA on 26 February 2010 and the second consolidation (3.2.0) on 11 January 2011. The specification GSM-R Baseline 0 was published as Annex A to the baseline 3 proposal on 17. April 2012. At the same time a change to Annex A of baseline 2 (2.3.0d) was proposed to the European Commission that includes GSM-R baseline 0 allowing ETCS 3.3.0 trains to run on ETCS 2.3.0d tracks.

Completion of the baseline 3 series is scheduled for 2012. The German Deutsche Bahn has since announced to equip at least the TEN Corridors running on older tracks to be using either ETCS Level 1 Limited Supervision or ETCS Level 2 on high-speed sections. Current work continues on ETCS Level 3 definition with low-cost specifications (compare ERTMS Regional) and the integration of GPRS into the radio protocol to increase the signalling bandwidth as required in shunting stations.

The development of ETCS has matured to a point that cross-border traffic is possible and some countries have announced a date for the end of older systems. The first contract to run the full length of a cross-border railway with ETCS was signed by Germany and France in 2004 about the high-speed line from Paris to Frankfurt (including LGV Est). The connection opened in 2007 using ICE3MF, to be operational with ERTMS trains by 2016. The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy have a commitment to open the full length of Corridor A from Rotterdam to Genoa for freight by the start of 2015. France will replace KVB on high-speed lines by 2017 with ETCS Level 2. Switzerland will switch from ZUB/Signum to ETCS Level 1 for conventional rail in 2018. Germany will start replacing all PZB and LZB systems in 2015, to be finished by 2027. Non-European countries are starting to deploy ERTMS/ETCS, including Algeria, China, India, Kazakhstan, Korea, Libya, Mexico, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. Australia will switch to ETCS on some dedicated lines starting in 2013.