1997 – July – Ness & Wagner – The Overseas Work Experience – The Pros, The Cons & The Necessity of Winning International Projects
Author(s):
Date presented:
David Ness Connell Wagner
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
In this paper, we would like to introduce an innovative proposal based on the research conducted by the Hitachi Rail Innovation team to further improve the existing available tablet application, particularly
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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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2013 – June – Szacsvay – Washington Metro Train Crash
Author(s):
Date presented:
Paul Szacsvay FIRSE Interfleet Technology At 4:58 pm on Monday, June 22nd, 2009, in the middle of the afternoon rush hour, approaching Fort Totten station, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail train 112 ran into the rear of train 214 at close to line speed. The impact caused the rear car of train 214 to telescope into the lead car of train 112, resulting in the death of nine people on board train112, including the train operator (driver). 52 people were transported to local hospitals, and a further 28 people with minor injuries were treated at the site and allowed to home. Initial investigations by the National Transportation Safety Bureau (NTSB) focussed on human error and the possibility that the operator of train 112 may have been using her mobile phone at the time of the crash. As the investigation progressed it became clear that the crash was wholly attributable to the unsafe failure of a track circuit to detect train 214, and that this failure mode was far from being a one-off incident. The accident was largely attributable to failures of the signalling equipment and by the signalling discipline. This paper describes the history of an unsafe failure mode dating back over 20 years, and the equally long chain of events and actions which not only failed to prevent the accident, but also made it almost inevitable that something like this would eventually happen. Each individual incident, response and subsequent action or failure to act has parallels in the author's experience, and undoubtedly the reader will be able to relate the issues to their own experience. Far from being impossible in our own rail environment, it is evident that similar events could well have combined in our own working environment to produce equally dire outcomes. It may be only a matter of good fortune that we are now in a position to draw lessons from others' misfortunes, rather than our own.
2004 – October – Drew – National Standard for Health Assessment of Rail Safety Workers
Author(s):
Date presented:
Dr Tim Drew MBBS Work Health Clinic - Mile End New Medical Standards for Rail Safety Workers were adopted across all Australian States and Territories as of 1 July 2004. The new standard represents a significant step in the improvement of rail safety and is the first time a common system of health assessment has existed across all Australian jurisdictions. The new standard adopts a risk management approach and reflects contemporary best practice in assessing the health of rail safety workers. The standard is a result of extensive research and input from a wide range of government, industry and medical stakeholders and although initially developed for Victoria was modified and then mandated for application across all Australian jurisdictions following on from recent rail accident investigations. In this paper we will examine the genesis of the standard, its make-up with a particular focus on "Risk Mitigation" strategies and finally the obligations of employers, employees and medical practitioners in the implementation of the standard.
1998 – March – Deveney – AWARE Communications Call Modes
Author(s):
Date presented:
Tom Deveney Dip. Communications Engineering RMIT FIRSE National Rail Corporation This paper concentrates on train radio for interstate operation as implemented in the National Rail train communications equipment know as AWARE-Australia Wide Augmented Radio Environment. The implementation of this system has demonstrated clearly that the dispirit radio communications standards forms the last break of gauge in respect to the flexible operation of locomotives throughout the country. Following is a review of communications facilities in use for train working and a look at some of the different call type implementations.
2008 – Nov – McQueen – Setting the Scene – Projects DART & Electrification
Author(s):
Date presented:
Phil McQueen BE (Hons), CPEng, MIPENZ, AMIRSE ONTRACK (NZ Railways Corporation) This paper describes the two major rail infrastructure projects currently underway on the Auckland Metropolitan Rail Network (AMRN): Project Develop Auckland's Rail Transport (DART) and the Auckland Electrification Project (AEP). Both are part of an overall rail upgrade that includes provision of improved station and passenger facilities and provision of a new fleet of electric trains. The scale of the projects has not been seen in rail in New Zealand for over 20 years and is placing demands on resourcing as well as causing service impacts during construction. However, both are immensely positive developments for rail in New Zealand, and in Auckland in particular. This paper briefly outlines each project, its current status, and challenges with resourcing and construction.
2007 – Oct – Purdy – Priority for Tram
Author(s):
Date presented:
Philip Purdy Manager Asset Development Lessons Learnt • Road space allocation is critical• Competing stakeholder objectives are difficult to resolve• We must improve on ‘selling’ the benefits to the community• Push the boundaries as small scale improvements are not sustainable• Increase enforcement/education• A delay or do nothing option is not viable in the longer term
2007 – March – Wardrop & Caldwell – Application of Problem Space Search to Heavy Haul Scheduling and Infrastructure Planning
Author(s):
Date presented:
Alex Wardrop BSc (Hons) MEngSciDavid Caldwell BEng (Hons) WorleyParsons Rail Developing train plans for heavy-haul railways is a complex task. Australia's heavy-haul lines are predominantly single track, presenting the particular problem of how to cross and pass trains to maximise capacity and minimise delays. Timetabling by manual techniques is time consuming and is unlikely to provide an optimal train plan. The Problem Space Search technique allows many thousands of feasible timetables to be rapidly developed and then ranked according to performance against such measures as throughput, average delay per train and cost. This produces a timetable that can be regarded as optimal under the prevailing conditions. This has an obvious application for making the timetabling process faster, reducing delays, and increasing capacity. However, this rapid generation of timetables enables timetable development to be undertaken on an experimental basis for strategic planning purposes, and this is perhaps a more significant application. Different combinations of infrastructure improvements, train configurations and timetables can be examined for their ability to sustain projected traffic requirements. The Problem Space Search technique has been applied to software utilised by BHP Billiton for integrated railway scheduling, and by ARTC for infrastructure planning.
2004 – March – McLean – Victorian Regional Fast Rail – A Control and Monitoring Perspective
Author(s):
Date presented:
Stuart McLean Bachelor Electronic Engineering, Hons (RMIT) ALSTOM Australia The Train Control and Monitoring System (TCMS) is the umbrella title given to the new Centralised Train Control (CTC) system and telemetry networks to be installed on the Regional Fast Rail (RFR) Project (Ballarat and Geelong corridors). This paper aims to provide an overview of the TCMS, detailing design decisions and equipment used and presenting a glimpse of the feature set offered by the new CTC system. It concludes by challenging engineers and managers to carefully consider the future specification design of control and monitoring systems.
2002 – August – Karrasch Organising an IRSE Exam Study Group
Author(s):
Date presented:
Sandra Karrasch BE (Electrical) AMIRSE Signal Engineer QR The study group formed to provide training for the IRSE exam so that signalling engineers can gain the credentials of passing the exam. The group organised lessons and tutorials for modules 1 & 2 in the first year and modules 3,5 & 7 in the second year. Many people supported the study group, including QR management, IRSE senior members and the IRSE Qld section. It was found that having smaller classes and holding the lessons as tutorials rather than formal lectures were often of greater benefit to the participants as there was improved interaction with the presenter. It was noted though that some subjects worked better as lectures. Encouraging exam candidates to debate answers to past exam questions was also beneficial. This enabled the candidates to discuss their answers, work out the differences and examine different solutions to questions by the sharing of knowledge. The main benefits to QR have been the collection of information and imparting of knowledge from senior engineers. Other benefits include better-trained signal engineers and an awareness of the wider issues of safety in signalling systems.
2006 – July – Caldwell – Generation of Optimised Automatic Signalling Layouts with Computer Simulations
Author(s):
Date presented:
David Caldwell BE (Hons) WorleyParsons TMG This paper discusses the application of computer simulations to optimising the layout of signals operating on the Automatic Block principle. Considerable efficiencies can be achieved in signal design and capacity analysis by methodically applying computer simulation tools. A system for quickly and accurately testing the influence of variables (such as train types, dwell times and speed limits) on track capacity and their interrelation with signal placement is proposed. The aim of the layout is discussed in the context of either maximising line capacity or optimising the layout to a specific traffic requirement. Application of existing simulation tools is explained and weaknesses are discussed. There is a complex interaction between braking distance, signal spacing and clearance times, particularly under diverse traffic conditions. A method for analysing these interactions quickly and efficiently is suggested. A method of laying out signals for maximum unrestricted line capacity is also discussed.