1991 – Aug – Young Barry – The V.F. Train Control Project for State R
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Technical Meeting Papers
Technical Meetings are held three times per year.
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2024 – March – Zhu, Lauro & Nardi – Innovative Tablet Solution for Improving Rail Operation
By: Dr Bin Zhu, Gianluigi Lauro & Federico Nardi
Date Presented: March 12th, 2024
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2024 – March – Sudholz – Passively Active – Warning systems for passive & occupation level crossings in agricultural settings
By: Thomas Sudholz
Date Presented: March 12th, 2024
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
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2024 – March – Robinson – Barriers to innovation in signalling design, verification, and validation
By: Neil Robinson
Date Presented: March 12th, 2024
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
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2024 – March – Moore – Signalling Principles – What are they and where do they come from?
By: Trevor Moore
Date Presented: March 12th, 2024
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
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2024 – March – Khan & Kamarulzaman – FRMCS – Integrated Migration Strategy
By: Obaid Khan & Khairulzaman Kamarulzaman
Date Presented: March 12th, 2024
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
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2024 – March – Alvarez – Case Study – FRMCS Migration Path in Perth
By: Rodrigo Alvarez
Date Presented: March 13th, 2024
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.
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2024 – August – Burns – Human Factors at Level Crossings
By: Peter Burns
Date Presented: August 21st, 2024
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
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2024 – August – Boss – Human aspects of managing cyber security in delivering ERTMS
By: John Boss
Date Presented: August 21st, 2024
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
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2022 – November – Youle – Qualitative analysis – the more efficient approach to managing risks SFAIRP
By: Patrick Youle
Date Presented: November 1st, 2022
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
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2022 – November – Hunter – Cybersecurity in the Railway Industry
By: Hugh Hunter
Date Presented: November 1st, 2022
Cybersecurity is a hot topic worldwide with regular attacks being performed against multiple domains.
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1988 – Nov – Howard – Presidential Address
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T.S. Howard B.Sc. (Eng.) MIEE, FIRSE, C.Eng. Marketing Manager Westinghouse Signals Limited The notice on the Board announced that a strictly limited number of places were available for a visit to the recently commissioned new power signal box at Waterloo. Fifth and Sixth form boys who were taking science subjects could put their names down to attend. For no more noble reason than that such an expedition promised to be a more diverting occasion than another afternoon spent in compulsory support of the school's ill fated cricket team, one teenage boy at that English boarding school at the end of the last war applied to go on the visit.
2013 – March – Wullems – How safe is safe enough? A Socio-technical View of Low-cost Level Crossing Safety
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Christian Wullems BIT(Hons) PhD MIEEE MACS Cooperative Research Centre for Rail Innovation George Nikandros BE CPEng FIRSE MIEAust MACS (Snr) Australian Safety Critical Systems Association Peter Nelson-Furnell B.Bus(Transport) Public Transport Victoria Low-cost level crossings are often criticised as being unsafe. Does a SIL (safety integrity level) rating make the railway crossing any safer? This paper discusses how a supporting argument might be made for low- cost level crossing warning devices with lower levels of safety integrity and issues such as risk tolerability and derivation of tolerable hazard rates for system-level hazards. As part of the design of such systems according to fail-safe principles, the paper considers the assumptions around the pre-defined safe states of existing warning devices and how human factors issues around such states can give rise to additional hazards.
1989 – Nov – Ackland – Epping Line Resignalling
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GRAEME ACKLAND B. App. Sci (Elec) SIGNAL INTERLOCKING ENGINEER PUBLIC TRANSPORT CORPORATION - VICTORIA (THE MET) The Clifton Hill to Epping line was first constructed in December, 1904, and was electrified in stages from 1921 to 1964. The line is about 17km in length, and has very little traffic other than Electric multiple units carrying commuters. When the the re-signalling project was conceived in 1985, the signalling consisted of a section of automatic signalling, dating from 1926; manual Double Line Block from Merri to Keon Park with mechanical operation of points and signals; and Staff and Ticket operation from Keon Park to Epping, with some power operation of points and signals at Lalor. The level crossing protection consisted of four sets of hand gates, three sets of interlocked mechanical gates, and eight sets of boom barriers. A greatly added impetus for the re-signalling of the Epping line came from the decision by the Victorian Government to establish a train Maintenance Depot at Epping and so release valuable central city land at Jolimont. This added and complemented the project by requiring an increased train service and a major interlocking at Epping.
2015 – October – Hartwell – A Review of the Thameslink Programme
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Georgina Hartwell MEng (Hons) AMIRSE MIET Network Rail Consulting The aim of this paper is to provide a project description and update to Network Rail’s Thameslink Programme in London. It discusses the history behind the programme and key design considerations. The paper then goes on to look at the reasons behind the decision to implement ATO over ETCS Level 2, before explaining some of the supporting projects and work-streams. In order to successfully commission ATO, a migration strategy and comprehensive set of system proving is required; testing activities are discussed in the paper. Finally, examples of best practice and lessons learned are given, before highlighting key considerations to be made by other high capacity infrastructure projects.