TDH Rail, September 2018, Issue 69

ISSUE 69 SEPTEMBER 2018

NEWS – FLEET MAINTENANCE TRAIN DETECTION – 3rd PARTY TESTING

PASSENGER INFORMATION The Official Magazine of the Asian Railway Operators Association and Rail Solutions Asia 2019

Rail Solutions Asia KUALA LUMPUR APRIL 10 – 12 2019

Rail Solutions Asia KUALA LUMPUR APRIL 10 – 12 2019

Asia’s Premier Railway Event for 2019 The 20th Exhibition and Conference for Railway Professionals in the Asia Pacific region Incorporating the 16th Annual Congress of the Asian Railway Operators Association Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre April 10–12 2019

CO N T E N T S News 04

Bombardier wins contract for trains in Singapore, Hong Kong starts HSR service, progress on Thailand-Cambodia rail link, Malaysia rail projects update

Rail Solutions Asia 2019

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Following another record-breaking show earlier this year, the region’s premier railway event will hold its 20th Annual Event in Kuala Lumpur from April 10 – 12 2019

3rd Party testing for MRT Systems

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3 party testing helps provide society with ongoing trust and assurance that their critical infrastructure assets are operating safely. By Yuan Wen Guo, Senior Principal Engineer Laboratory Partnership and Andrew Duncan, Head of Safety & Asset Risk Management, DNV GL Singapore rd

Fleet Maintenance

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Bombardier uses its DBOM (Design-Build-Operate-Maintain) skills to plan and implement a complete O&M system at the Willowbrook facility. By Bombardier Transportation

The Potential of IIoT

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Combining the Industrial Internet of Things with Enterprise Asset Management to improve customer satisfaction. By Michael Scollo, Industry Solutions Manager – EAM, Trapeze Group Asia Pacific

Passenger Information

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Technology has revolutionised the presentation of passenger information, both on-board and in stations. By Neil Voce, Head of Business Development, ASL

Train Detection

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The use of axle counters to provide reliable train detection and the benefits for increased safety. By Akhilesh Yadav, COO Frauscher Sensor Technology India Private Limited

magazine, is published by TDH Exhibitions Ltd. TDH Exhibitions Ltd PO Box 139 Cranleigh GU6 7WD, UK Tel. +44 (0)1483 548290 Fax. +44 (0)1483 548302 Email: tdh.norm@gmail.com

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UK Office +44 1483 548 290 Malaysian Office +603 2385 5395 info@tdhrail.com

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Issue 70 will be published in November 2018. Editorial content will include: Asian Regional A comprehensive review of current and Roundup planned railway projects in several South East Asian countries, including: Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia Network Control The fundamentals of design for the command centre Track Safety Mobile laser scanning for railways The above is in addition to news, AROA updates and extra features. The features listed may change.

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NEWS Bombardier Wins Contract for Singapore’s NSL & EWL Lines Bombardier Transportation recently announced that it has signed a contract with Singapore LTA for the supply of 396 BOMBARDIER MOVIA metro cars for passenger services on the high-capacity North-South (NSL) and EastWest (EWL) lines. The contract is valued at approximately US$607 million and includes an option for long-term service support. If this option is exercised by SMRT Corporation Ltd, the total contract could be worth up to US$881 million.

The modern MOVIA metro vehicles integrate some of the world's most advanced mobility technologies, including; the BOMBARDIER MITRAC propulsion and control system that manages the flow of both onboard and subsystem information, as well as data between the vehicle and the rail infrastructure. In its six-car configuration, the new order of 396 metro cars bring the number of MOVIA vehicles in Singapore to 672, making it one of Bombardier’s largest metro fleets in the world. The new trains will provide a much-needed reliability improvement on two of LTA’s high-capacity lines. The two lines have a combined total length of 102 km and serve 61 stations, with an average daily ridership of more than 1.8 million passengers.

Over the past 20 years Bombardier has delivered 276 driverless MOVIA metro cars for Singapore’s Downtown Line and 13 INNOVIA APM 100 automated people mover cars for the Bukit Panjang LRT system. Earlier this year, a new asset replacement contract was awarded to supply 19 new INNOVIA APM 300 cars and retrofit 13 existing APM 100 cars, as well as to deliver a signalling system upgrade for 13 stops on the Bukit Panjang LRT Line.

Evraz supply rails in Taiwan Phase One of the Green Mountain line on the Tamhai LRT project in Taiwan is estimated to begin service in late 2018. The first phase has a total length of 9.55 km, with 11 stations. Evraz supplied its 50E6 rails for the elevated track and CTCI (the trackwork contractor) invited them to join the test running on the line at the end of June. The Phase One line is expected to handle 40,000 passenger rides per day in the initial period of its operations and will help relieve some of the traffic congestion on the highway.

Thanks to this first success, Evraz was awarded the contract to supply rail for the elevated track on the Ankeng LRT project, which is currently under construction. This 7.8 km line will have 9 stations, including a connecting station with the Circular Line and it is expected to open in December 2021.

Both projects belong to the New Taipei City Metro authority.

Evraz has enjoyed further success in Taiwan with the recent supply of 3,300 tons of its 60E1 rail to the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA).

Although this is Evraz’s first contract for TRA, the company has already built up a good reputation with the Taiwanese mainline operator, who recognize and appreciate Evraz’s quality and service capabilities.

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WEGH Group receives new order from VNR In the autumn of this year, WEGH Group SpA will supply Vietnam National Railways (VNR) with a new batch of 200 level crossing barrier machines, TD96/2, to be installed in various compartments of the local rail network.

The collaboration on the Italy-Vietnam path started in 2017 and it has been consolidated thanks to the great reliability of the 250 barrier machines, which are already operational. The WEGH quality, which is now highly regarded by VNR lays the foundations for new opportunities in Vietnam.

The barriers will be installed by Vietnamese technicians to protect the numerous road crossings along the country’s most important railway line, which runs from Hanoi to Ho Chi Min City, thus improving safety and making the service more reliable. The barrier machines designed and produced by WEGH Group have been preferred to similar products from other international companies, especially for their complete reliability.

The barrier machines have been configured specifically for the application context in Vietnam, taking into account some specific requests from VNR technicians.

NEWS Hong Kong MTR starts operations of HSR service Passenger services on the Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-ShenzhenHong Kong High Speed Rail line commenced on the 23rd September.

This connected Hong Kong with the high speed rail network in the Mainland of China, which has more than 25,000 km of track and provided a brand new experience for cross-boundary travel. The commencement date was announced in August by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, upon the appointment of MTR Corporation as the HSR Operator for a concession period of 10 years.

Professor Frederick Ma, Chairman of MTR Corporation, said that having successfully completed the construction of the Express Rail Link as the Project Manager, the Corporation is delighted and honoured to be appointed as the Hong Kong West Kowloon Station will be the hub of the new High Speed Rail service to be operator for the HSR service. “High operated by MTR Corporation Speed Rail will open a new page in rail travel in Hong Kong and will impact positively on the city’s economic development by enhancing Hong Kong’s connectivity with the Mainland. With the confirmation from the Government of the HSR being safe and sound for passenger service, we are fully geared up for the commissioning of this new line”, he added.

During the initial period of operation, the High Speed Rail will connect Hong Kong to 44 destinations in the Mainland of China, including short-haul routes such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, as well as long-haul destinations, including Shanghai and Beijing.

New MD for Bombardier Transportation in Australia Bombardier Transportation has announced that senior rail industry leader, Paul Brown is the new Managing Director for their operations in Australia.

In his new role Paul will focus on the competitiveness of Bombardier’s operations in Australia. His priorities include strengthening stakeholder relations, delivering projects and services to the highest standards, as well as business development and securing new business in a highly competitive market.

Paul recently celebrated 35 years in the rail industry with Bombardier. As a proven senior leader experienced in commercial management, sales and project management, he has successfully delivered assignments in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. In addition to the MD for Australia role, Paul will also continue as Project Director for the Queensland New Generation Rolling Stock project.

Paul succeeds Andrew Dudgeon, who has decided to pursue other career opportunities outside of the business. Bombardier wishes to thank Andrew for his service and for his efforts in developing their business.

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Public Consultations commence for Singapore’s next LTMP Singapore’s last Land Transport Master Plan (LTMP) was announced in October 2013. As a result of the various measures that it introduced, the LTA is firmly on track to achieving its target of 75% of all journeys during peak hours being made on public transport by 2030.

According to the LTA, the land transport system is an important economic and social enabler that contributes directly to Singaporeans’ daily lives. It acknowledges that while good progress has been made since LTMP 2013, the land transport plans must continue to adapt to meet the needs and aspirations of Singaporeans for a liveable city.

With this in mind, LTA has recently commenced public consultations to help shape the next LTMP. The public, industry players and other stakeholders are invited to share their views and ideas on the future of the land transport system. This will help foster a conversation on how quickly, at what cost and with what priorities a shared vision for the future of land transport should be achieved.

Public engagement will be done extensively, through a wide range of online platforms and focus group discussions. Since the end of August, an e-poll has been put up on the LTA website to invite members of public to share their thoughts and aspirations on the various land transport issues. All feedback received will go towards shaping the next LTMP.

NEWS Thailand-Cambodia Rail Link Progressing

Recent CIE Events organized in Taipei

The Thailand-Cambodia rail link is expected to be a vital link in the transport connectivity of Southeast Asia. The crossborder railway operation was terminated more than 40 years ago. Today, the rail link from Aranyaprathet (Thailand) to Poipet (Cambodia) is being revived. The works include the reconstruction of railway tracks, bridges and stations in both countries. The 6km missing link, between Aranyaprathet and Klong Luk on the Thailand/Cambodia border, including the new cross-border steel bridge, were completed in 2015.

The remaining 6.5km missing link on the Cambodian side to Poi Pet was completed in early 2018. The construction of a temporary border station at Thai halt is now ongoing and is expected to be completed in late 2018.

Meanwhile, the draft Joint Traffic Agreement is being finalised.

News supplied by AROA Member Athaphon Kawprasert, Divisional Engineer, Permanent Way Division, Thailand SRT.

The Chinese Institution of Engineers (CIE) has organized a series of conferences to promote the Core E&M System Technology of the Rail Industry, with the aim of promoting future developments in railway operations.

On June 15, 2018 CIE held the “2018 Railway Industries Technology & Railway Signaling System Conference.“ Frauscher Sensor Technology GmbH from Austria invited many international experts to introduce and share advanced technology, which applies to railway signaling systems. The event drew more than 300 participants and was a resounding success.

CIE is also holding a conference on October 5, 2018. “The Symposium on Core E&M Systems Technology of the Rail Industry – Life Cycle Extension, Adaptation during Rehabilitation and Replacement, and Strategy of Manufacturing Localization” will explore the development and challenges facing the railway industry in Taiwan, as well as sharing experiences with other countries. Many leading enterprises, such as Thales Group, Scomi Group, Wabtec Faiveley and Key Direction Ltd. have been invited to deliver keynote speeches on different aspects of this subject. The event is free for participation and delegates can register online at: http://t.cn/RDgbO2C

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German Pavilion at Rail Solutions Asia 2019 Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10 – 12 April 2019

Rail Solutions Asia KUALA LUMPUR APRIL 10 – 12 2019

The German Railway Association (VDB) is supporting RSA 2019 and exhibiting in the Official German Pavilion offers cheaper participation possibilities for all German companies. th

RSA is regarded by many as the best railway show in Asia & 2019 will be its 20 Annual Show, see Pgs. 9-11.

More than 35 German companies have exhibited over the past 19 years, including some of the most loyal and consistent customers. They have this to say about the show; Vossloh – 16 times exhibitor

“Good organisation & event”

SMA – 14 times exhibitor

“The best railway exhibition in South-East Asia”

A.Rawie – 12 times exhibitor

“We meet all the relevant railway people in East Asia”

For More Information contact the Official Pavilion Organiser & Booking Agent ECM Expo&Conference Management GmbH: David Schönrock, Tel +49 30 61 78 43 – 41, Email: ds@ecm-berlin.de 7

NEWS Knorr-Bremse sells Sydac to Oktal Knorr-Bremse AG has sold its Sydac driver training simulators business for rail vehicles to Oktal, a subsidiary of the French Sogeclair group. The divesture of Sydac is part of a realignment of KnorrBremse’s portfolio in rail vehicle systems and reflects Knorr-Bremse’s increased focus on its connected onboard railway subsystems and related services. Under the strategic ownership of Oktal, Sydac can concentrate fully on the business and make better use of market opportunities.

This move will enable the Sydac business to remain competitive in the long term.

The agreement between Knorr-Bremse and Oktal includes the full takeover of Sydac Pty Ltd in Australia, its U.K. subsidiary Sydac Limited and its Indian subsidiary Sydac Simulation Technologies India Pvt Ltd. Laurent Salanqueda, Managing Director of Oktal SAS, the leading company in the simulation division commented that, “Sydac offers products, which are compatible with a wide range of freight and new train models. It also brings us geographic expansion in Asia, particularly in China and India, opening up new opportunities for the entire division.” Philippe Robardey, Sogeclair’s Chairman and CEO, says that “with this acquisition, we are strengthening the Group’s product turnover, accelerating the development of our simulation division and opening our first locations in the Asia-Pacific region.”

Sydac specializes in driver training simulation and has been at the forefront of commercial applications of simulation technologies since it was formed in 1988. The product portfolio covers the entire range of driver training simulation tools and solutions. Sydac also undertakes to maintain and renovate existing simulators manufactured by Sydac, or third parties, in response to issues of obsolescence or new training and assessment requirements.

Malaysia’s suspended rail projects update When the Pakatan Harapan (PH) party came to power after winning the May 9 election, ending more than six decades of rule by the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) party, most people (especially Malaysians) were initially in shock, followed quickly by an expectation of some very different policies from their new government.

They didn’t have long to wait and within weeks the PH started to deliver on several of its pre-election promises. The new government clearly intended to get public spending under control and to start improving a national debt, which had spiralled to more than RM 1 Trillion. One of the most striking developments came in the area of infrastructure projects and the cancelling / suspending / deferring of three high-profile railway projects.

• K uala Lumpur – Singapore HSR line – 350 Km long, estimated cost RM 50 – 60 Billion • ECRL East Coast Rail Line – 688 Km long, estimated cost RM 55 Billion • Klang Valley MRT 3 - 40 Km long, estimated cost RM 35 – 40 Billion All three projects have attracted huge international interest in recent years and the shock announcements sent reverberations through the many railway suppliers, who have already invested heavily in time and resources to secure contracts on the three new lines.

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Since then the debate has continued, with many interested parties offering their opinions on, A: whether there is a genuine need for the new lines, B: what economic and social benefits they may actually bring and off course C: the significant costs involved. The bottom line from the government is that they cannot commit to more investment, until the Malaysian economy is in better shape.

So all three projects are under threat, but with the momentum and enthusiasm that has already been built up, interested parties will be doing everything possible to keep the debate going.

Some progress has been made recently. Agreement has been reached to postpone the Singapore – KL HSR line for 2 years, while studies are continuing on the ECRL project, before a final decision to defer or cancel is taken. In each case, the Malaysian government’s main partners in the projects, i.e. Singapore for the HSR line and China for the ECRL, seem to be sympathetic to the situation. Off course, some of the thinking on these projects is being influenced by the potentially enormous financial penalties that will be part and parcel of withdrawing from legally binding agreements. In the case of the MRT 3 Line, it had been announced that construction would begin next year and following an earlier announcement that it would be scrapped, it is also currently postponed.

So for the moment, the projects are all still on the table and subject to the progress of the Malaysian economy in the coming months, there is still hope that they will go ahead.

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RAIL SOLUTIONS ASIA 2019 Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 10 – 12 April 2019

Rail Solutions Asia

Asia’s Premier Railway Event th

20 Annual Show

A SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED RSA OVER THE PAST TWO DECADES.

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Rail Solutions Asia KUALA LUMPUR APRIL 10 – 12 2019

20th ANNUAL EVENT From the first show in Bangkok in 2000, via events in Hong Kong and Taipei to the 20th edition in Kuala Lumpur in 2019, 1000s of companies and individuals have benefited from attending this major railway gathering. Regarded by many as the best railway show in Asia, the event combines: • a wide-ranging exhibition • a comprehensive conference programme • t he Annual Congress of the Asian Railway Operators Association and is designed to be

‘A one-stop solution for all your product and information needs’

EXHIBITOR PICTURES AND TESTIMONIALS FROM RAIL SOLUTIONS ASIA 2018 • A fine, focused exhibition providing excellent access to all relevant groups of decision makers.

Getzner

• The first year for TRB and I was very impressed with the attendees, both quantity and quality.

TRB

• It was a pleasure to work with TDH, who were true professionals and delivered an excellent service.

Wurth

• Our first time at RSA and the number of leads we collected far exceeded our expectations.

Tensar

• For us, this is the most important rail fair in Asia. Very good organisation!

Powerlines

• Still Asia’s premier Rail Exhibition.

Arconic

During their tour of the exhibition the VIPs visited many of the stands and showed a keen interest in the exhibits, including:

Bombardier

Austrian Pavilion

CRRC

Senior Managers from other Asian rail operators and authorities visited the exhibition stands, including:

Joe Belavic presents Melvelle & Knox Kershaw products to Sri Lanka Railways delegates

Frank Meyer from Schwihag with Permanent Way & Signalling Managers from Thailand SRT

Lee Yam Lin from Singapore SBS in discussion with Dean Whitmore from Pandrol

A TRULY REGIONAL EVENT

The event covers much more than just the Malaysian market and the inclusion of the Annual Congress of the Asian Railway Operators Association means that participants have the opportunity to meet senior managers from up to 10 railway operators from eight Asian countries. Delegations to the 2018 event included the following:

Taiwan TRA, BOHSR & CIE

Manila LRMC

Vietnam Railways

CONTACT US NOW TO BOOK YOUR STAND AT THIS IMPORTANT EVENT UK Office Tel: + 44 1483 548290 Malaysian Office Tel: +603 2385 5395 Email: info@tdhrail.com 10

Rail Solutions Asia KUALA LUMPUR APRIL 10 – 12 2019

THE CONFERENCE The conference attracts more than 150 delegates, including up to 50 members of the Asian Railway Operators Association. This comprises delegations of up to five Senior Managers, sent by 10 of the region’s leading railway operators to represent the five designated key areas of railway activity; • Projects & Planning

• Permanent Way & Infrastructure

• Rolling Stock

• Signalling & Communications

• Operations & Maintenance

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR 2019

If any Operators, Consultants, Equipment Suppliers, Service Providers etc, are interested in presenting a paper or workshop, please email TDH Exhibitions Ltd at info@tdhrail.com with a brief outline of your subject. Terms and Conditions Apply.

The conference will include two sessions with conventional conference papers and 4 specialist workshops (see below).

MORNING CONFERENCE SESSION (Day 1)

Conference papers presented by Asian Railway Operators on the subject of PROJECTS & PLANNING, giving detailed information of upcoming projects on urban and mainline rail systems.

MORNING WORKSHOP (Day 1) ■

ROLLING STOCK

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP (Day 1) ■

PERMANENT WAY & INFRASTRUCTURE

Delegates and AROA members from more than 20 countries attended the two day conference

MORNING CONFERENCE SESSION (Day 2) ■

IMPROVING YOUR RAIL SYSTEM

MORNING WORKSHOP (Day 2) ■

SIGNALLING & COMMUNICATIONS

AFTERNOON WORKSHOP (Day 2) ■

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

• A maximum of four topics will be discussed during each workshop.

Marco Sung from Taiwan BOHSR during the Q&A session following his paper on Taiwan High Speed Rail

• T he conference is open to non-AROA members, through a payment of the delegate fee of GBP 525

AROA Member Open Forums

Each workshop will include an open forum debate with the Senior Managers from the Asian Railway Operators Association, who will be attending the workshops relevant to their area of expertise. They will be providing a list of current and relevant topics for discussion and the Session Chairman will use these topics to lead an open forum debate between the operators, suppliers and other delegates.

NETWORKING IS THE KEY

Philippine PNR & Thailand SRT delegates continue chatting after the AROA Open Forum Debate

Rail Solutions Asia brings together many of the world's top railway suppliers and most of Asia's most influential railway personnel.

With so many people sharing the same interests, all under one roof, we maximise networking and business opportunities through • T he conference and AROA Workshops are held in rooms close to the exhibition hall • C onference delegates and AROA members pass through the exhibition hall several times each day • T he Networking Area in the exhibition hall provides a more relaxed atmosphere for discussions • E xhibition areas dedicated to Rolling Stock, Permanent Way and Signalling, help create a focused environment

CONTACT US NOW TO BOOK YOUR DELEGATE PLACE AT THIS IMPORTANT EVENT UK Office Tel: + 44 1483 548290 Malaysian Office Tel: +603 2385 5395 Email: info@tdhrail.com 11

3rd Party Testing as a Barrier for MRT Railway Safety

By Yuan Wen Guo, Senior Principal Engineer Laboratory Partnership Andrew Duncan, Head of Safety & Asset Risk Management, DNV GL Singapore

MRT as a whole system

Bow Tie and Barrier Management

Railways are complex interconnected systems, with people at the centre of long-lifecycle physical assets. “People” are: passengers, operators, maintainers, project teams, suppliers, managers, neighbours and “Assets” are the ways, rolling stock, signalling, power, depots, stations, etc. Joining these as a whole system to deliver value, are the management systems, political policies, contracts, culture, social expectations, timetables, import duties, rules and regulations, etc. Consider for a moment what “value” means here. For some, Value is the financial return on investment, for others it comes from being able to get to work predictably. Ask around in any office, “what is important to you in a railway?” and the breadth of answers may surprise you. As a Performance Optimiser for metro systems, it was entertaining to learn that professional performance colleagues had their own differing priorities. One prized comfort and peace above all else, another, predictability. Yet another wanted short total journey times and was willing to tolerate crush-loading, high jerk-rate acceleration, etc. anything to make total journey time shorter.

When considering Performance, where in the journey do you start measuring? From when the train starts to move to when it stops?

This misses a large portion of the journey and is a poor measure of performance or capability. A passenger enters the station and finds their way to the ticket hall and turnstiles; they negotiate escalators, file along crowded platforms, avoid getting too close to the platform edge, if there are no platform edge doors; if there are platform edge doors the passenger waits for the arriving train to creep to the docking sector, triggering interlocks for the doors to open. The train doors will hopefully have started opening too.

All our passenger need do now is wait for the arriving passengers to egress. Now the passenger is on the train; the doors close to interlock; the train can start to accelerate out of the station. Half their journey is complete!

Although those performance managers didn’t decide on one metric for ‘performance’, they did agree the system had to be very safe indeed. Not just safe from slipping or tripping, but safe from Major Accident Hazards, i.e. low frequency incidents leading to loss of life, or significant impact to the asset. Because these occur at a low frequency, the risk is easily forgotten in time.

Unfortunately, incidents do happen, somewhere, sometime.

There are many threats to the safety of rail assets. Thankfully, industry and society consider safety as the first, second and third priority. Others are important certainly, but never at the expense of keeping people safe. However, nothing can ever be 100% safe, but industry gets very close. Furthermore, if things do start to go wrong, there are barriers in place. Barriers are objects or concepts that 1) help stop bad things happening, 2) stop them getting worse, 3) help limit consequences, and 4) help things recover to normal. Some barriers are obvious – platform edge doors for instance. They are physical barriers mitigating the risk of someone, or something, getting onto the track. There are many less obvious barriers. Maintenance and inspection programmes are barriers against doors failing, 3rd party testing is a barrier against substandard components, first aid training is a barrier against minor injuries becoming life threatening. Barrier management is often visualised as a Bow Tie diagram. Imagining the shape of a bow tie, the middle is the hazard. On the left are the threats that may lead to the event happening and on the right are the consequences. Barriers are put in-line with the threats and consequences and then detail like degradation, ageing and potential improvements can be considered.

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Optimising Requirements Choosing barriers is not always clear. In the example, the risk of someone being struck by a train is really very low. By introducing

The Bow Tie diagram shows the possible causes and consequences for a potential hazard

platform edge doors to the system, the total journey time will now be slightly longer, by perhaps four seconds. The platform will therefore be more crowded; are doors still a safety improvement?

Furthermore, that additional crowding will further slow passengers coming off the train, making boarding slower and the journey even longer. For an individual, those extra seconds don’t matter, but when they are multiplied by the hundreds of thousands of people moving around the rail system, the impact needs to be managed.

An individual passenger on a crowded platform is at higher risk from health threats than from falling off the platform.

Therefore, you might quantitatively decide to invest in public AEDs and evacuation equipment before you spend money on doors. This process of optimisation helps make good whole life asset decisions.

A balanced dialogue and an agreed process help tremendously in deciding how to optimise. Rail assets having very long and overlapping lifecycles was mentioned at the start of this article. Absolute age isn’t so important if assets are managed well – they can be maintained, refurbished, re-lifed, inspected, etc. meaning assets can keep going for decades.

That’s longer than most peoples’ careers, meaning the assets we have today could have been designed, built and commissioned in a different era by people who are long gone.

All of society, including the railway industry, needs to be able to trust that an asset has been managed with safety being priorities one, two and three. Dialogue helps stakeholders stay aligned to this.

3rd Party Testing as a Strong Barrier

Some barriers are stronger than others and decisions must be made as to which barriers to invest in. There is an optimal answer within a set of criteria. The oil and gas industry has its criteria, the nuclear industry has its, as does aviation. The differences [in criteria] reflect consequence, difficulty to implement, social attitudes, political climate, etc. Something they have in common is a determination that 3rd party testing can be a strong barrier, introduced early into the asset. 3rd party testing is a barrier against substandard materials and equipment entering the supply chain and reaching the asset. If incorrect components or materials reach assets, they can deteriorate or act differently and become a tangible threat. That threat can then escalate into a failure and an incident, with the potential to harm people. Any incident will inevitably impact the lower priorities too: return-oninvestment, insurance premium, customer trust and possibly your own job prospects.

3rd party testing as a barrier is an extremely efficient use of resources. Like the maintenance system that keeps the door barrier effective, 3rd party testing is much less visible than the actual physical doors. It’s even less visible than maintenance management. Except in a project (or incident investigation), one is unlikely to see any sign of 3rd party testing as an activity.

Nevertheless, trust is being appropriated when a body like DNV GL is engaged. Choosing the right lab is important – trust is not worth much if the lab or firm hasn’t been around for a few years, or if the results are called into question in later life. If a firm and its laboratory network have existed for more than 150 years as

HIGHSPEED STOP SAFETY RAWIE

A. RAWIE GmbH & Co. KG . Dornierstraße 11 . 49090 Osnabrück . Germany . Fon +49_541_912070 . info@rawie.de . www.rawie.de

Examples of tests carried out by 3rd Party Testers

a technical thought leader, there is a very good chance it will be around for the lifecycle of your asset. That’s important.

3rd Party Testing and Conformity Assessment

Today, testing is understood to be part of "conformity assessment".

Third-party testing is especially required, preferred or used, if the results have a considerable influence or effect on public or societal issues, particularly when related to the safety impact on society, such as with MRT railways. In summary, the public at large expects to have a higher degree of confidence in results obtained by third-party testing laboratories, relative to purely industrial considerations. Below are typical and critical testing regimes, which a 3rd Party Laboratory can conduct for rail / infrastructure related components and associated advisory services in the region of South-East Asia.

RAIL COMPONENT TEST

Centre Positive Bending Moment Test Rail Seat Negative Bending Moment Test Rail Seat Positive Bending Moment Test Rail Seat Dynamic Load Test Rail Seat Fatigue Test Insert Pull Out Test

BRIDGE BEARING TEST • • • • • • •

Vertical Load Test Rotation Test Lateral Load Test Test for Coefficient of Friction and for Elastomeric Bearing Test Vertical Load Test Bucking Stability Test Shear Stiffness Test

Conclusion

In summary, rail systems are complex and long-lived, with many stakeholders. Assets continue to be operated for considerable periods, spanning decades. Only by having trusted assurance processes from the beginning, such as 3rd party testing, can society at large have ongoing trust and assurance that their critical infrastructure assets can indeed continue to operate, safely. In the past, particularly in South East Asia, such testing was mostly ‘best practice’ and optional, however, in recent years there has been a strong move towards 3rd party testing as a barrier, to de-risk and safeguard society.

RAILTRACK TEST • • • • •

• • • • • •

Slow Bend Test Dynamic Fatigue Test Macroscopic/Micro-examination and Hardness Test Chemical Analysis Electrical Impedance Test

CONCRETE SLEEPER TEST

• Centre Negative Bending Moment Test

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Signaling

Services Solutions Help “Go Transit’s” Willowbrook Facility Achieve World Class Fleet Maintenance

By Bombardier Transportation

T

housands of commuters pass by Willowbrook every day, but few probably know the name of the facility they are passing. It contains a repair shop, plus cleaning and maintenance facilities, along with storage tracks for locomotives and coaches in Toronto, Canada. It was originally a Canadian National Railway facility until it was purchased in the early 1970s

by GO Transit, who operate three separate operating yards; the North, South and Storage yards.

The North yard consists of four tracks, numbered 5 to 8. Track 5 leads through the maintenance building and has space for 14 cars. GO uses Track 6 to store cars and the track, which deadends at both ends of the maintenance building, can store up to 9 cars. GO crews use Tracks 7 and 8 to service the self-propelled rail cars, which can store 10 and 7 cars respectively. The South yard consists of 4 tracks, numbered 1 to 4 and GO uses these tracks for servicing locomotives and coaches. The Storage Yard consists of 2 tracks, numbered 9 and 10. Both tracks accommodate the overflow of on-rail equipment when the South Yard is filled to capacity.

Problems Willowbrook currently maintains a fleet of 600 multilevel cars.

Every four years, coaches and cab cars are brought into the coach shop for; quad, door overhaul, HVAC and various other fleet upgrades. Due to the increased commuter traffic and the need to run the facility 24 hours a day, with double coverage during rush hour traffic, Willowbrook started facing problems in the scheduling of the coach shop activity. The problems were made worse, due to a significant growth in the size of the fleet.

Limited work organization, mainly using a “first in, first out” flow, was not providing the required methodology to recover the maintenance plan. While being within the regulatory requirement, the team was 10 coaches behind schedule. Additional investment was considered to try and improve the throughput.

Solutions As a world leading transit system expert, Bombardier Transportation looked at GO’s overall maintenance plan for the year, to have a better understanding of the workload and to provide optimal operations and maintenance (O&M) services solutions. Findings showed a total of 180 coaches had to go through the shop and the customer demand (Takt Time) was defined at 15 coaches per month, i.e. 0.75 coach per day or 3.75 per week. To ensure GO gains the maximum value from their assets, over the lifetime of their coaches, while achieving an availability rate of over 99%, the AS-IS and TO-BE lead times were calculated by Bombardier. These were designed to achieve a productivity increase of 1.75 coaches per week, as required to achieve a lead time of 9 days, without any increase in manpower.

With Bombardier customizing its services to the specific design, capacity and growth requirements of GO, an improved sequence was established and standardized with the technicians to improve the daily workload management. Bombardier was involved in all stages of the life cycle service, to ensure improvement and continued success, once the coach enters passenger service, by; preparing operations and maintenance plans and procedures, mobilizing a local O&M organization, support testing and commissioning and managing the trial running period. Based on the total number of positions available, both GO and Bombardier agreed on a 3 day sequence, out of a 9 day flow.

A pilot was carried out on one coach, with daily monitoring and governance of the work sequence.

As a leader in total turnkey, DBOM (design-build-operatemaintain), or concession contracting, Bombardier plans and implements complete O&M organizations for all types of transit systems. O&M experts participate in the design process and tailor their approach to each specific system. This enables Bombardier to optimize the system design and add value, for example by reducing energy consumption, decreasing fleet mileage and 15

using less space for O&M workshops and depot buildings; all savings that translate into lower capital and operational costs for customers. Once a system enters passenger service, full responsibility for the daily operation of the system transfers to the custom-designed O&M organization.

Results

The establishment of a new coach shop layout, based on the bilevel configuration, led to a 50% reduction in coach movements during the evening shift.

Thanks to the combination of daily work monitoring and an improved and standardized work sequence, the team was able to recover the schedule from eight coaches behind schedule, to one behind in the first month, without any additional headcount or overtime.

The work sequence was then adjusted, based on the successful results and the improvements were implemented with the GO facility team. Bombardier’s long-term partnership with customers continues over the life of the system, through consultancy, with options for the provision of technical support packages, refurbishments and upgrades as required.

Lessons Learned

• Through introducing better work management there is no need for extra positions, or high cost capital investments.

• Closer work monitoring, small simple improvements from the team and coaching the team to respect and understand the customer demand, are key to achieving world class fleet maintenance and sustaining the schedule and improvements implemented.

Maintaining system availability is crucial to ensuring an efficient and competitive transit operation. GO Transit and Bombardier Transportation have both benefitted from such a Maintenance Approach:

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Realising IIoT’s Potential through EAM to Master the Basics of Customer Satisfaction

By Michael Scollo Industry Solutions Manager – EAM, Trapeze Group Asia Pacific

When businesses think about customer happiness, they often think about things that will delight passengers. However, before you can delight your passengers, you must first satisfy them.

While real-time information alerts, live chat with customer support and slick mobile websites all enhance the customer experience, these are the frills and extras. Before you can delight your customers, you need to satisfy their basic needs and that is a safe, reliable and comfortable journey. There is no mobile app on earth that is going to delight a passenger, who is late for work, because a broken-down train is blocking the line.

Customers have a basic expectation that services run on time and that things just work. Common causes of customer unhappiness – broken ticketing machines, delays, breakdowns, faulty air-conditioning – are all issues relating to asset reliability and performance. Basically, when one of your assets stops doing what it’s supposed to do, it impacts your ability to deliver services and directly prevents you from delighting customers. Traditional wisdom suggests that to avoid these triggers of customer dissatisfaction, we as transport providers need to fix things before they break and impact our services – and customers.

This approach, commonly called preventative maintenance, has long been used to safeguard against asset failure.

For the most part, this works relatively well – after all, we do this with our personal cars: we send them for a service every 10,000km and the mechanic checks them over and replaces anything that looks like it might give way soon. However:

operations, reducing asset availability.

• Y ou’ll also need to pay for out-of-hours labour to inspect tracks at night.

• And at the end of the day, you might be spending all this time, money and resource on excessive maintenance for nothing, if the asset is fine.

Nowadays, we’re in the business of giving our passengers a good experience as well as a good service, so we don’t want to put a price on customer happiness – but is there a better, more cost-effective way to do this? The answer is YES – you can master the basics of customer satisfaction, by combining Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) tools and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The term Internet of Things (IoT) first came about decades

• P reventative maintenance in a transport business requires a significant time investment to schedule, prepare and perform maintenance tasks.

“The foundation of customer satisfaction is safe, reliable and comfortable services that • It means you have to take rolling stock away from get passengers where they need to be, without any unexpected surprises”.

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ago, well before many of the advancements we enjoy today: smartphones, high speed internet, activity trackers, even smart refrigerators that can ping you when you’re low on milk. IoT is not a new idea, but it certainly has come a long way and today, seems limited only by your imagination.

Simplistically, IoT is a network of devices embedded with sensors connected through the Internet, capable of automatically transferring data.

IIoT is a relatively new term, used to describe the application of IoT in an industrial context, to increase efficiency and improve productivity. While the term is new, the practice is not – businesses have been taking advantage of IoT technology since the 1980s. For example, Coca Cola had vending machines that automatically notified distributors through the internet when inventory was low.

The IIoT Difference to Asset Maintenance

In an asset maintenance context, IIoT has been used by assetintensive industries for a long time to perform condition-based or predictive maintenance (CbM and PdM). With reactive or schedule-based maintenance, much of the maintenance cost comes from taking the time to manually inspect the asset to find the cause of the breakdown, or as part of your preventative maintenance procedure, not to mention the costs associated with taking the asset out of action for servicing. However, with IIoT, it is possible to use advanced sensors to detect the precursors of failure, before assets actually break down, with no human intervention. This makes your maintenance more efficient, less costly and lets you keep your assets in service.

The results speak for themselves: commercial airlines make good use of PdM technology to monitor the health of individual components of their fleet, allowing any proactive troubleshooting to be done quickly and accurately and avoiding costly manual inspects of the entire aircraft. Predictive maintenance reportedly can reduce airline maintenance budgets by 30-40%.

Another example is the Belgian Navy. They needed to maintain

highly complex equipment, without sacrificing a high level of operational readiness, while facing a reduction in personnel and funding. They turned to PdM to overcome this challenge and didn’t just succeed – they increased their mean time between maintenance by 60% and saved €1.5 million.

But What About IIoT’s Application Specifically in Rail?

In rail, we’ve talked about IIoT, CbM, PdM and their possibilities for around 20 years, but it’s taken the industry a long time to adopt them. Initially we were focused on developing datagathering devices, gadgets. Now that we have droves of them, we’re trying to figure out which solutions add the most value and what to do with all the data. Today, with the advances in technology, there are thousands of possible applications.

Virtually any asset within a railroad enterprise (rolling stock, linear, infrastructure, facilities, etc.) can be connected to share data to respective maintenance teams for action and analysis.

This facilitates understanding the condition and lifecycle of assets, including investment needs and timing.

Potential applications today include sensors notifying when wheel diameter thresholds have been exceeded, or when water tanks are low. Health monitoring systems, diagnostics and

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telematics data from major systems can directly connect to your EAM system, to automatically notify when some condition-based action is required from maintenance teams, like scheduling or planning inspections, work, labour and materials. All this data is stored centrally within that EAM system and can be analysed to study asset lifecycle and plan for asset rehabilitation or replacement.

At Trapeze, we’ve had some North American customers who’ve added IIoT to their arsenal of tools for asset management – here’s what they’ve achieved with it.

Metro Transit – St. Louis

Metro Transit transitioned from a break/fix maintenance model to a PdM model. They use data gathered from their vehicles and controller area network to proactively manage their fleet. Using real-time data, powerful algorithms and an alert system that issues alerts pre-failure, they are able to proactively replace key components, before actual failure occurs.

The same data can be examined from a macro perspective to show patterns fleet-wide.

This change to proactive maintenance has resulted in $2.4 million in annual savings on Metro Transit’s operational budget, as well as an increase of their vehicles’ lifespan by 25%.

Also, their mean time between failures is now more than 5 times of what it used to be.

They have also gained the additional benefits of visibility into their asset performance and data, allowing them to hold vendors accountable and improving customer satisfaction by giving them a safer, more reliable service.

“Passengers are better served by improved fleet availability and fewer breakdowns and they’re also safer,” said Darren Curry, Chief Mechanical Officer. Metro Transit’s achievements as a model for asset management in public transport were recently recognised by the Federal Transit Authority.

Denver Transit Operators (DTO)

DTO used to practice reactive maintenance. The resulting asset failures resulted in on-time performance targets not being met and a declining ridership. Furthermore, the failure to meet Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which included a

strict KPI of 97.7% availability, meant that DTO was incurring financial penalties from the transport authority. To turn this around, DTO implemented CbM with help from Trapeze. DTO has their SCADA system capture automated asset failure alerts from a variety of Train Control-based and sensored subsystems.

This data and alerts were then passed on to the Trapeze EAM for action and analysis.

Integrating IIoT faults into EAM has allowed DTO to achieve true CbM: minimising service interruptions through real-time detection and resolution of vehicle and infrastructure problems, prior to equipment failure. This high degree of automation allows DTO to maximise system uptime and ultimately provide a more reliable service and a better passenger experience.

DTO’s system went live in August 2017. On-time performance has improved dramatically by roughly 10% and remains consistently high. This improved reliability in performance has also had a notable impact on passenger numbers, with an increase in ridership of 30.15% based on the previous year.

Making the IIoT Vision a Reality

It’s important to remember that IIoT is no silver bullet, even though possibilities are endless.

High quality data, the right solutions and expert analysis are a requirement if you want to maximise its full value.

Furthermore, since there are so many possibilities, you need to carefully review and implement only those that will result in measurable, economic and practical value. Otherwise, you will find it hard to evaluate the return on investment and justify future IIoT projects.

Most important of all is remembering that successful asset management goes beyond putting new technology in place, it means having an asset management mindset, culture and way of thinking.

You’ll need buy-in at all levels of your organisation and the right system to execute your asset management plans, goals and objectives.

To avoid expensive customisations and the risk of a system that doesn’t meet your needs, look for a purpose-built enterprise asset management solution that’s tailor-made for rail, with builtin workflows to accommodate your industry-specific processes.

Once you have your people, process and system in place, you’ll be all set to seamlessly deliver safe, reliable services that keep customers satisfied in the most cost-efficient manner possible.

For more asset management insights and public transport food for thought, follow the Trapeze blog: trapezegroup.sg/blog

19

Rail technology DESIGN ˑ DEVELOP ˑ MANUFACTURE ˑ SERVICE Traction-Centre Assemblies

Bumpstops

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Our products include railway Traction Centre Assemblies, AntiRoll Bar systems, link assemblies and couplings, along with various bushes, suspension mounts, and springs. In addition, we also manufacture HV and LV insulators.

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New Technologies in Passenger Information

By Neil Voce Head of Business Development, ASL

New Technologies in Passenger Information

Passenger information has progressed steadily in line with the growth in passenger numbers on public transport around the world. From humble beginnings, with a guard and a timetable, we have progressed through the Tannoy era of large blasting horn loudspeakers and the rotating split-flap (or trade named Solari) name board onto dot-matrix displays, coupled with more distributed platform loudspeakers, before progressing to LED and LCD screens.

In the past Public Address systems in stations were a longstanding British byword for muffled and unintelligible speech, which was an outcome of the technology available before higher power amplifiers were available to drive wider frequency loudspeakers. With passenger safety now added to the role of Passenger Information Systems (PIS), this has helped in gathering investment for the systems. In the busy urban environments, where the modern metro or mobility systems are most needed, the multiple risks around fire and security require tailored responses

to be effectively and quickly communicated to passengers.

On the positive side, in many parts of the world, passengers are now already carrying their own screen and mini-PA system in the form of a smartphone and so, now as we look to the future of PIS we have the option to integrate those as an effective communication (and even way finding) tool, for customers.

If we look at what we are aiming to achieve in simple terms, we can see that we are looking at more individual information and information that might be useful in advance of arriving at the station: • Allowing people to prepare before they arrive at the station • Mobile apps driven from up to date timetabling allow people to tailor their arrival time to changes in the timetable • Allow preparation on which platform they might want to look for • Screens at multiple locations giving well-tailored information • Train information to include carriage occupancy • Useful items like weather at destinations • Reinforce evacuation strategies • Clear Intelligible announcements • Safety first – responsive evacuation strategy

Passengers at stations used to rely on rotating split-flap (Solari) name boards

In addition to improving the information available to customers, a responsible operator has a duty of care to neighbours and the local environment. Noise Nuisance is a massive issue when expanding rail services in densely populated areas. Increased running hours, increased train frequency and a desire for improved passenger information are all potentially harmful to the environment. Fortunately, we can deploy modern PA technologies to become a better neighbour.

There are several key advances in technology that improve sound systems available to the system designer. The first is the use of good quality loudspeakers. Modern line array loudspeakers have precisely understood coverage patterns, 21

Many passengers now carry their own screen and mini PA system

allowing for sound to be concentrated in the listener areas and avoiding spill-over into neighbouring areas. In addition to modern powered line arrays with integral amplifiers, even the deployment of multiple passive column speakers is easier now that amplifier powers are so much higher. A higher power amplifier means we can use higher quantities of speakers, without sacrificing sound quality for volume output (like a typical horn speaker). Another increasingly common technology is dynamic ambient noise sensing. This technology places industrial microphones in the listener areas, which relays the local sound to a DSP processor. This accurately separates paging messages from background noise, subsequently adjusting the output levels of the PA system to run around 10dBA above the noise level. This maximises intelligibility, but avoids putting out any more sound than necessary.

It is possible to start to look at platforms in urban areas as a group of zones rather than as a single entity. As such, it becomes possible to tailor the PA output in the various sections to the noise level in those sections, rather than raising the level uniformly across a whole platform. This becomes particularly relevant for night time noise reduction, co-ordinated with displays, passengers can be asked to remain near the centre of the station so that announcements won’t be played to the areas near neighbours. Routine messages can also be discontinued to some areas without affecting evacuation strategy. All technologies that offer better directed messaging at the correct volume can lead to savings in acoustic treatment and claddings on surfaces in the urban environment, the costs of which can vastly outweigh the uplift in technology costs to get the right product in the first place.

All operators are concerned with the costs of their railway or transport system and modern passenger information can affect costs on three levels – initial investment, running costs and as a potential revenue generator.

At the initial investment stage, it is important to consider whole life costs, particularly power costs, over the life of a system, although buying the right equipment can reduce installation costs as well. For example, some microphones and loudspeakers can be connected via IP LAN networks, meaning that no ‘special’ cabling is required around a station. Some PA/VA systems can be available in wall-mount cabinets, thereby reducing floor space and making that space available for other purposes, such as rentable retail space. New technology voice alarm controllers have message management features in them that eliminate the need for separate PC’s to make and deliver messages at stations.

When planning for running costs, purchasing highly efficient power amplifiers creates a massive saving over time. Over 15 years, the difference in power costs between new amplifier technology and the traditional class AB design can be more than the total cost of all of the central PA hardware!

Planning maintenance is also important. Consider carefully 22

where active equipment will be located. The use of IP loudspeakers puts a lot of active electronics into public areas, where access is challenging during operating hours. A central rack with hot-swappable amplifiers can be updated without interruption to service.

When customers have enough information, they are generally satisfied and this encourages them to use transport systems. Conversely, a lack of information will mean that staff are consistently interrupted by passengers seeking help and information, reducing efficiency and increasing running costs.

Once we have well informed customers in place on a platform waiting for their train, we can make revenue from the display systems by showing advertising content. It is possible to mix weather, news and local advertising on screens. A modern PIS system can readily integrate feeds from the internet, or dedicated channels to display to passengers during times when there is no particular information to give. This is overridden when more important information needs to be displayed.

The PIS system can provide analytics, for which particular advertising has been shown, on how many screens, during the course of each day, or month. Billing to advertisers can therefore accurately reflect the number of slots their particular advert received. While speaking with the tender team at ASL, they expressed the following thought “we see a culture of ‘cut and paste’ specifications that come through telecoms packages that make it difficult to help operators maximise their potential in passenger information. We do see pressure on initial costs that result in the operator ending up with larger whole life costs than they would have had with more considered investment in the first place.“

Conclusion

In conclusion, technology available to a modern mobility system is fast moving. The pace of change is not always obvious to operators and specifiers. It is therefore imperative to engage with potential providers, before committing to a specification, or requirements document. By creating early engagement, modern technological possibilities can be written into plans, to ensure overall costs and experiences for the operator and passenger are optimised.

A responsible operator has a duty of care not to create Noise Nuisance for its neighbours

The author of this piece is Neil Voce – Head of Business Development at ASL (Application Solutions), a UK based manufacturer of Public Address and Passenger Information Systems with offices in UK, UAE, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Neil is a council member for the Institute of Sound and Communication Engineers in the UK, as well as being a member of the Audio Engineering Society and an associate member of the Institute of Acoustics. Contact: nvoce@asl-control.co.uk

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Innovative Features of Modern Axle Counters for Reliable Train Detection

By Akhilesh Yadav COO Frauscher Sensor Technology India Private Limited

The role of train detection in railway signalling Train detection plays a key role in ensuring safety in railway signalling and train control systems, by detecting vacancy and occupation of track sections. This knowledge of track vacancy is used by signalling systems to control the movement of trains.

Clearly, wrong information from train detection can lead directly to a hazardous situation. Hence, train detection systems must guarantee the highest safety levels and maximum availability.

Signalling systems use the concept of blocks that are monitored by train detection systems. Basically, only one train is allowed to occupy a single block section. This concept is still valid even for modern CBTC systems, except that blocks can now move with a train. However, in this case, train detection and train integrity have to be provided by the train itself. For CBTC systems, infrastructurebased train detection serves the purpose of back-up systems, in case of failure of onboard train detection systems.

Track circuits Track circuits, which can be used for track vacancy detection, harness the principle of an electrical circuit through rails, where a

Figure 2. Wheel sensors can even be operated under water, which is beneficial in case of floods as seen here (Mumbai suburban network).

power source is on one end and an electromechanical relay on the other end. This system is generally energised by electrical current, which is sent through the rails. When train wheels shunt this electrical circuit, the current reaching the relay is reduced. Thereby, the relay is deenergised and the corresponding section is detected as occupied. When no electrical current reaches the relay, due to other reasons, such as wire break, power failure, or component failure, the related section is also marked as occupied.

Axle counters

Figure 1. Inductive wheel sensors, such as the Frauscher RSR180 are characterised by high availability, robustness and precision.

24

Axle counters operate on the basis of wheel sensors. These wheel sensors work on the principle of electromagnetic induction (Fig. 1). Within the sensor, transmitter and receiver coils are electromagnetically coupled. This continuously induces a certain voltage/current in the receiver coil. A passing wheel of a train modifies the coupling. This changes the receiver signal, whereby train wheels can be detected.

Such inductive wheel sensors are installed directly on the track.

COM

COM

COM

COM

AEB

AEB

AEB

AEB

COM

AEB

IO

AEB

IO

AEB

IO

AEB

IO

AEB

RSR 10

RS

R

9

FMA 8

AEB

RSR 1

FMA 1

RSR 2

FMA 2

RSR 3

FMA 3

RSR 4

FMA 4

Decentral Architecture

RSR 5

FMA 5

RSR 6

Central Architecture Hardware-Interface

FMA 6

RSR 7

FMA 7

RSR 8

Central output of all FMA through IO-EXB IXL connected to IO-EXB

Figure 4. Centralised, decentralised and even mixed architectures can be realised with the FAdC.

A number of wheel sensors are then configured to monitor a track section. Axle counters, located indoors, continuously evaluate all the wheel sensors configured to monitor a track section. When a number of axles have entered into a section, the same number of axles has to leave the section, before the system declares the status of the track section as clear. In other circumstances, the section is declared as occupied. Axle counters have some major benefits (Fig. 2): • No need for insulated rail joints • Less dependence upon track maintenance • No dependence on good ballast resistance, can even be operated on flooded tracks • Track sections of up to 10 km length, or even longer, when using modems, or network technologies

Frauscher Advanced Counter FAdC

Frauscher Sensor Technology’s latest axle counter, the Frauscher Advanced Counter FAdC, (Fig.3, see main picture on previous page) is deployed on mainlines, metros and freight lines in many parts of the world. Also, both the Eastern and Western corridors of the upcoming Dedicated Freight Corridors in India will be served by the FAdC system as their primary train detection technology. It provides various features that make it a system of choice for such projects.

Modular, scalable architecture

Due to the scalable and modular design of the axle counter, combined with a software interface, both centralised and decentralised architectures can be configured, as well as a mixture of the two types (Fig. 4). Since the system is optimised for open networks, there are increased savings on space, energy

and investment costs, with project scale thanks to state-of-the-art communications technologies.

No trackside electronics

The FAdC’s specific design does not require any electronics to be installed on the track side. Thereby, any possibility of interference from overhead and on-board traction components, or other external electrical interferences are drastically reduced. No electronics also means reduced track-side maintenance activity.

Additionally, most of the measurements and adjustments can be done via the indoor equipment.

Hot standby redundancy for critical components

The FAdC enables a hot standby to be established (Fig. 5). All configuration and communication processes are conducted via one indoor component, the COM board, which can be duplicated. The redundant boards keep communicating with each other through a hot link. If one of them has a malfunction, the other board still ensures the system’s full availability. All other components that are common to multiple track sections are also duplicated. These include power supplies, CAN bus and even network elements. This intelligent use of component redundancy guarantees maximum availability of the system.

Increasing fault tolerance

As is the case with redundant design, intelligent and fault-tolerant functions can ensure smooth operation, even in the event of a fault. Under certain circumstances, the duplication of individual components in the outdoor equipment – or of the complete system – is not necessary to achieve higher availability when using such functions. The FAdC provides two of those, as detailed below.

With their aid, the availability of the complete system can be further increased in a cost-effective manner, even where there are extreme environmental conditions and interference.

Counting Head Control CHC

The Counting Head Control CHC principle is used for fundamental avoidance of errors caused by unavoidable influences. When used correctly, the patented functionality satisfies the requirements in line with SIL 4. If the adjacent track sections are clear, the counting head is switched to a standby mode. In this idle state, a freely configurable number of undesirable instances of damping, caused by tools, people, trolleys etc. can be suppressed. This means that no fault, or occupied indication is generated by a short-term influence; no reset is required. Approaching vehicles activate the sensors, meaning that they are detected and the occupied indication is output in a fail-safe manner (Fig. 6).

Supervisor Track Sections STS Figure 5. The FAdC can be operated in a hot standby structure.

The intelligent Supervisor Track Section STS process corrects 25

unavoidable, external interference in a fully automated manner. By observing the general reset conditions, it is possible to further optimise availability, without any negative effect on safety. Every two track sections are overlaid by a supervisor section.

Consequently, it is possible for a faulty track section to be reset automatically, without manual intervention, if the corresponding supervisor section is clear. Similarly, a faulty supervisor section is reset if the two corresponding track sections are clear (Fig. 7).

Figure 6. Counting Head Control CHC in use: trains approaching re-activate the sensors and are detected reliably.

Besides quick installation and replacement, maintenance and error rectification in signalling systems form the basis for safe, reliable and punctual railway operation. The Frauscher Diagnostic System FDS helps to minimise the time spent on-site carrying out periodic maintenance. Important information, such as the quiescent current of the wheel sensor, can be read from a central service area. The possibility of faults occurring is already identified in advance and prevented by means of preventative measures. This implies that additional maintenance work can be avoided through:

Open failsafe Ethernet interface

As an independent provider of wheel detection systems and axle counters, it is of strategic importance to Frauscher to be able to communicate signalling data with all system manufacturers and integrators via software interfaces, in a safe and reliable manner.

Therefore, the company has developed a safe protocol, which fulfils the communication requirements between axle counters and the higher-level signalling system. This protocol is called Frauscher Safe Ethernet FSE. This freely available protocol has been developed especially for a very wide range of applications in the field of wheel detection and axle counting. It enables communication between various systems, without excluding the option to transmit additional information.

FSE provides a series of significant benefits for system integrators, without their own standard protocol, when it comes to realising a variety of projects. In addition to the basic requirements relating to safety (SIL 4) and availability, these include:

• U nrestricted online access to the data from the axle counting system • F ast and efficient troubleshooting • E xtensive diagnostic and statistical data • S imple data management and archiving • C onnection to customer-specific diagnostic management systems via XML interface Configuration of the FAdC takes place using an open, universal format. This can be incorporated into the system integrator’s own project design environment easily and flexibly. Following an appropriate briefing and mutual establishment of the key parameters, the system integrator is able to carry out configuration, commissioning and maintenance independently.

Furthermore, the high flexibility of the system enables operators to extract a range of additional information besides the clear/ occupied indication, for example; data about direction, speed, wheel diameter and much more. Using these reports, various applications can be realised, for example, employees at a yard can see at a glance which track sections are clear/occupied plus the number of wagons in all sidings. Deepening this approach, it was also possible to realise an application to automatically direct individual wagons to determined tracks. The axle counter therefore provides the system with all the necessary data to enable the software to determine the exact position and direction of all wagons, within the railway network.

•

• •

imple and quick implementation S o FSE simulator for implementation support Flexible and free definition of the file contents to be transferred Simple, redundant and network-compatible point-to-point connection • Can be used universally for o All wheel detection and axle counting applications o Any other application, in which data is to be exchanged between two systems in a fail-safe manner

FAdC: benefits for individual projects

Using the patented rail claw, Frauscher wheel sensors are mounted on the foot of one of the running rails easily, quickly and safely.

There is no need for laborious drilling work, meaning that the time spent in the hazardous area is reduced to a minimum. Of course, this also speeds up demounting significantly. Enabling the use of welded rail joints, axle counters additionally support the track’s robustness.

Conclusion

COM

AEB

RSR 1

AEB

FMA 1 000

STS 1

RSR 2

AEB

FMA 2 000

000

RSR 3

AEB

FMA 3 000

STS 3 STS 2

000

RSR 4

AEB

FMA 4 000

RSR 5

000 STS 4

000

Figure 7. When using Supervisor Track Sections STS, virtual track sections are established.

26

Modern axle counters, with their flexible architecture possibilities and innovative tool environment, enable railway operators and system integrators to design, install and run their operational network simply and costeffectively. They also allow very individual and customer specific solutions across all railway segments. Combining maximum flexibility and innovative technology, with robustness and high availability, contributes to realising individual applications under extreme conditions.

For more details please see: www.frauscher.in

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