200204 – Muttram – Development of System Authorities on the UK Mainline Railway System and Their Application to the Deployment of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS)

The British railway system is now owned, managed and run by over 100 organisations with very different objectives and cultures. Against the background the implementation of complex systems with elements in many different companies can be very difficult. Such systems need to have a single ‘system architect’ to optimise the design and assure safe performance. To perform this function the UK mainline railway has developed the concept of ‘System Authorities’.

This paper sets out something of the history of the concept and its development to date and then goes into some detail on the application of the principles in planning for the deployment of the new European standard Train Control System (ETCS/ERTMS). The conclusion of the work to date is that there is no case on safety or business grounds for fitting ETCS Level 1 to the UK mainline network.