2024 – March – Zhu, Lauro & Nardi – Innovative Tablet Solution for Improving Rail Operation
Author(s): Dr Bin Zhu, Gianluigi Lauro & Federico Nardi
Date presented:
Technical Meeting Papers
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2011 – March – Morris – Track Maintenance Impacts of Train Detection Systems or Why Ballast Regulators Have Windows
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Adam Morris BE(Hons), Dip PM, MIEAust, MAIPM Abigroup Contractors When considering railway signalling, track or structures, it is important to consider that each of these are merely sub-systems of the larger system we call the railway. The configuration of any one system can impact on any other and the often fraught relationship between track and signals is certainly no exception. The various train detection systems all impact in different ways on the track and in particular track maintenance activities. The need to supply signalling support to track maintenance is often overlooked in considering the whole of life costs of train detection systems. There can scarcely be a signal engineer or technician without a horror story of the damage wrought by clumsy, unprepared track crews, especially that dreaded combination of ballast tamper and regulator. But is it all their fault? Perway crews know that this equipment is deliberately put in the worst possible location or cunningly camouflaged just to annoy them. This paper examines the impacts between the various types of train detection systems, including track circuits and axle counters and other ancillary track mounted or near-track equipment on track maintenance practices. It also includes a brief commentary on the case for the need to detect broken rails.
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2013 – Oct – Gifford and McPeake – Split Detection and Emergency Power Operation
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
John Gifford FIRSE ARTC Hunter Valley Thomas McPeake AMIRSE ORAH Rail ARTC's Hunter Valley Rail Network in NSW is currently transporting 150MTPA of coal to the Newcastle Ports, with projected increases between 200 - 270MTPA over the next 5 years. The Network sees 1560m long coal trains travelling between 60 and 80kph at 8minute headways. How will ARTC undertake maintenance activities and avoid the loss of train paths and consequential train cancellation at around $1MIL loss to the coal industry per event Points and crossovers in particular are the Achilles heel in terms of reliability and difficulty in obtaining maintenance windows due to combined detection for each point end. Incorrect manual operation of powered points due to failure or to allow the movement of track maintenance machinery is a significant risk for ARTC. There has been a major derailment at Whittingham in March 2010 and many instances of damage to point switch blades due to a train or track maintenance vehicle trailing through the points following manual operation. This paper details the reasons why ARTC needed to investigate, develop and deploy Split Point Detection and Emergency Power Operation for crossovers to improve maintainability and reduce the impact of point failures. It covers the development, risks identified and mitigation measures, the design and the operating procedures for this innovative solution to a difficult operational problem.
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1999 – March – Hickey – Railways at War
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Michael Hickey B.E., GRAD. DIP, P.M. & I.R., F.I.E. AUST, F.P.W.I. Manager Contract Operations, Rail Services Australia Since early civilisation signalling has been an important and noble profession. Generals, when summoning their troops, used signalling or heralds in various ways to concentrate their forces at the appropriate time or retreat to fight another day.
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2008 – July – Tapsall – Change in Mindset to Promote Better Delivery
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Robert Tapsall, Construction Manager Trackstar Alliance, MIRSE With great vision, QR embarked on their first Program Alliance to gain long term support and commitment from the rail industry suppliers in order to ensure delivery of their Capital Works program would be achieved. This paper will briefly describe the Alliance framework, development of Alliance culture and the benefits of the Alliance delivery model which the Trackstar Alliance has successfully implemented to date. In an environment of innovation and creation of best value, Trackstar has been instrumental in bringing about savings to QR in scheme design and implementation of new techniques with a reduced drain on QR's key resources. This paper will describe some of these innovations with a particular focus on signalling and the role signalling engineers can take in delivering better outcomes.
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2006 – March – Barker – Using Independent Railway Safety Investigations to Help Manage Risk
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Phillip Barker, MIRO, Dip TSI. Senior Transport Safety Investigator Australian Transport Safety Bureau A greater understanding of safety related occurrences can assist railway operators and railway managers to prioritise resources to manage risk. Before you can manage a hazard it helps to understand how accidents and incidents are occurring. Implementation of corrective action, policy development and planning comes from a process of risk assessment. Given that occurrences pose a safety and financial risk to railway operators and managers, a program of analysis to look at the range of contributing factors, should form part of any safety management system. This should lead to greater safety and potential gains in efficiency. This paper will briefly outline the general process adopted by the ATSB to analyse occurrences. The status of the National Rail Occurrence Database will also be outlined.
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2007 – July – Weerakody – Innovative Project Delivery Solutions
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Don Weerakody MIRSE, MIEAust, MIET Public Transport Authority This paper outlines two signalling projects recently undertaken by the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA). Each of these projects dealt with unusual circumstances, resulting from acts of vandalism. They both required innovative solutions as the approaches normally employed were unsuitable. The Boom Gate Motor Protection Project is a solution to level crossing failures caused by vandals hanging on the boom arms at level crossings as they are returning to the upright position. This causes the boom motor to trip and the boom remains in the down position. The crossing remains in this state for some time or until a technician arrives and resets the boom motor circuit breaker. This leads to prolonged closure of the level crossing and encourages motorists to drive around the boom gates. This project addresses this problem, and also allows provision of other features such as enhanced monitoring of the level crossing equipment. The Track-Based Transmission System for Signalling Project was implemented due to the theft of aerial line circuitry over a 5.5km section of track between Armadale and Mundijong. Direct replacement of the existing signalling infrastructure was not possible due to damage to the poles and the unavailability of appropriate aerial line cable in a short space of time. The railway reserve for this section also falls under the protection of state and federal environmental protection legislation enacted after the original installation of the signalling equipment. Re-instatement of the existing system using cables would have caused an unacceptable impact to the local ecology due to the trenching required. The Boom Gate Motor Protection is in operation at two level crossings and is being progressively installed at all urban level crossings. The Track-Based Transmission System for Signalling is successfully in operation on the Armadale to Mundijong railway.
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2003 – July – Portela – Enhancing Train Visibility
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Lionel Portela B.E (Elec.) Project Engineer TVS, ALSTOM Australia – Transport Enhancing train visibility in Dark Territories in the NSW metropolitan rail network has occurred through a series of control system projects commissioned by the Rail Infrastructure Corporation NSW, State Rail Authority IT & T and ALSTOM Australia. This paper describes the development, installation and commissioning of the various SigView control systems used to enhance train visibility in the Blue Mountains. The paper provides details on each stage of the process, beginning with the initial objective of providing signalling indications in the Dark Territories through to the provision of Train Describer systems some of which are currently in use.
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1998 – Nov – Chadwick – BTR Rail WESTRACE Tools
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Marc Chadwick BE, GradDipMgt, MIRSE Manager, Product Development, Westinghouse Signals Australia Industry and its customers are jointly seeking lower costs, faster delivery, higher quality and greater consistency. All this in the face of the ever increasing shortages of skilled personnel in our profession, a problem that is going to get worse before it gets better. This paper presents the tools that have been developed by the BTR Rail Group Conlpanies for use in WESTRACE Interlocking applications to help satisfy these demands.
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2005 – March – Sim – Singapore North – East MRT Line Fully Automated Driverless System
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Wee Meng SIM MIES, MIEE, MCIBSE, C Eng Land Transport Authority, Singapore and 1 depot. From the HarbourFront, located on the southern part of Singapore, NEL runs towards the north-east, passing through the Central Business District, corridor of Serangoon Road and to the new towns of Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol. The depot is located at Sengkang and serves as the operating company headquarter, stabling yard and operation control centre for both the mainline and depot. The paper describes the key consideration and engineering requirements for a fully automated driverless system. It gives some insights to the four main core systems, namely, the rolling stock, signaling, communications and integrated supervisory control systems. The successful integration of these four systems is of paramount importance to the successful implementation of a fully automated driverless system. The overview of the four core systems will be discussed. As NEL is a system with a high level of complexity, the project demands a need to adopt a system approach throughout the design, construction, testing and commissioning phases of all the electrical and mechanical systems. The paper will discuss briefly on the approach taken that led to the successful implementation of the project. The NEL system was opened for revenue service since 20Ih June 2003 and has been consistently achieving a system availability of 99.90%.
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2002 – April – Arpaci – ERTMS/ETCS Benefits for the World Railways
Date Presented: December 27th, 2015
Melih Arpaci Diplom Informatik MIRSE Product Group Manager Train Control Systems Siemens Transportation Systems Looking back over the past 40 years of railway history at ATP (automatic train protection)/ATC (automatic train control) systems across Europe, it is easy to appreciate the need for a common harmonised, interoperable train control system. Most countries currently have their own proprietary ATP/ATC system.
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2024 – March – Sudholz – Passively Active – Warning Systems for Passive & Occupation Level Crossings in Agricultural Settings
Author(s): Thomas Sudholz
Date presented:
This Paper investigates the issues regarding use of passive level crossings for livestock movements in the agricultural industry. This unavoidable practice presents a different risk profile to the typical user, with livestock movement being
2024 – March – Robinson – Barriers to innovation in signalling design, verification, and validation
Author(s): Neil Robinson
Date presented:
I started in signalling more than 30 years ago at British Rail, where I learnt how to design interlockings, initially in relay circuits, and then by programming Solid State Interlockings. This work sparked my interest in safety critical syste
2024 – March – Moore – Signalling Principles – What are they and where do they come from?
Author(s): Trevor Moore
Date presented:
The term signalling principles is often referenced with regards to the design of a signalling system. It is also used as part of the title of a person ‘Principles Verifier’ or ‘Principles Tester’. Some rail managers also reference signalling p
2024 – March – Khan & Kamarulzaman – FRMCS – Integrated Migration Strategy
Author(s): Obaid Khan & Khairulzaman Kamarulzaman
Date presented:
This paper offers a detailed FRMCS integrated migration strategy as a preparatory guide for current GSM-R users, particularly Rail Transport Operators (RTOs), as well as for projects in the planning and developmen
2024 – March – Alvarez – Case Study – FRMCS Migration Path in Perth
Author(s): Rodrigo Alvarez
Date presented:
The Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) is currently building a new mobile radio and backhaul transmission communications network across the Perth metropolitan electrified railway network.
2024 – August – Burns – Human Factors at Level Crossings
Author(s): Peter Burns
Date presented:
Today’s railway fatalities are arguably more likely to occur at level crossings than in the train collisions we tend to focus most attention on controlling. Designing for level crossing safety can be messy and grey, especially when the dependen
2024 – August – Boss – Human aspects of managing cyber security in delivering ERTMS
Author(s): John Boss
Date presented:
The Netherlands is rolling out the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) across the national network. The government created a Programme Directorate to manage the rollout. Cyber security for both ERTMS as well as the transportation syst
2022 – November – Youle – Qualitative analysis – the more efficient approach to managing risks SFAIRP
Author(s): Patrick Youle
Date presented:
To support the acceptance of safety risk for configuration changes to railways, systems engineering recognises both qualitative and quantitative hazard and risk assessment methods. Quantitative analysis can be perceived as objective and quali
2022 – November – Hunter – Cybersecurity in the Railway Industry
Author(s): Hugh Hunter
Date presented:
Cybersecurity is a hot topic worldwide with regular attacks being performed against multiple domains.