REGISTER

John Aitken BE MlEEE AMIRSE

Aitken & Partners

Australia has a sad history of incompatibility in railway radio communications. There is no standard for radio communications on the standard gauge track. Some states have incompatible radio systems on different track gauges; one has incompatible radio systems on the standard gauge track. The situation looks likely to continue for many years, imposing a substantial cost on each rail operator.

Incompatibility has a further cost to the community, as the Mclnerney inquiry into the Glenbrook rail accident' and the Hexham inquiry2 show. The Hexham inquiry demonstrates that radio system design can affect the susceptibility of a rail network to human error. Ergonomics and equipment failure are regularly considered but there is rarely an analysis of the effects and consequences of human error in the radio communications system design. Some improvement could be gained from expanded Codes of Practice, identifying risks and hazards for consideration at the design and testing stages.

Over the last twenty years the mainland railways have moved towards a common frequency band for radio communications. Despite this, sufficient proprietary quirks have been implemented into the radio systems to ensure that no single radio can cover all systems. Locomotives are equipped with up to seven different radios to operate through the Defined lnterstate Railway Network. Recent changes in the cellular telephone market have made the use of GSM-R feasible in Australia. GSM-R could replace incompatible train radio systems in higher traffic areas with internationally standardised equipment. GSM-R is not economical for low traffic areas but can be integrated with existing mobile radio and satellite telephone networks.

The paper concludes with a description of an integrated train radio system that was fitted to the CRT Cargosprinter. This is an example of a screen-based radio system that presents a consistent interface to the driver despite variations in radio communication technology along the track.