200204 – Symons – Australasian Signalling

This paper on Australasian Signalling is an introduction to whet the appetite for those travelling to Sydney for the 2002 International Conference, provides an update for those who have been before and show those who have never been what they are missing. Australia and New Zealand have a diverse range of practices and systems some home grown and many adapted from Europe and America.

This paper provides a snapshot as at December 2001, of some of the continually developing Australasian (Australia and New Zealand) signalling and safeworking practices. Australasia has an interesting mix of predominately British and North American derived signalling and safeworking practices. The huge distances meant that the evolution of signalling systems was fragmented resulting in different practices in each capital city, state and country.

In Australia, three very different systems are evident metropolitan and country, with country having either CTC or Dark Territory. Metropolitan rail systems are characterised by being increasingly centrally controlled with train management systems, with computer based interlockings, full track circuiting and either route or speed signalling.