68
SIGNALLING & TELECOMS
ERTMS
CLIVE KESSELL
on the East Coast Main Line
T
he decision to resignal the southern end of the East Coast Main Line (ECML) has been well publicised. It is to be part of the Digital Railway initiative, although ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) and its ETCS component (European Train Control System) have been around much longer than the ‘Digital Railway’ banner.
Toufic Machnouk, Network Rail's Programme Director.
ERTMS has been in development since the late 1980s and ETCS has matured into a reliable product which is being adopted right across Europe and beyond. In Britain, it is deployed on the Cambrian Line, commissioned in 2010, on the central core of Thameslink in London including an Automatic Train Operation (ATO) overlay - a first in the world - and shortly on the Great Western Main Line from Paddington to Heathrow Airport, facilitating Crossrail and Heathrow Express operation. So what is special about the ECML? This will be the very first UK main line to be equipped over a considerable distance and where conventional lineside signals will be removed once all operational and technical elements are fully proven. With the technology now robust, just why is this a significant project? Rail Engineer had a conversation with Toufic Machnouk, the Programme Director for the scheme, to find out.
PHOTO: MATT BUCK
Rail Engineer | Issue 189 | Mar-Apr 2021
Project extent ETCS will be deployed from King’s Cross to Stoke Tunnel, just short of Grantham, a distance of 106 miles on the main line East Coast route. Included within this will be the branch from Finsbury Park to Moorgate in London (mainly in tunnel), the Hertford loop from Alexandra Palace to Stevenage and along the Hitchin-Cambridge line as far as Royston. The main line is mainly four-track but with a twotrack section over Welwyn Viaduct and the two associated tunnels, and a mix of two and threetrack sections from Huntingdon to Peterborough. The branches are two tracks. Nine tunnels are located between King’s Cross and Stevenage, including those on the Moorgate branch, and there are two tunnels on the Hertford loop. Level crossings exist north of Peterborough. As such, all the challenges of a mixedtraffic railway built in the Victorian era will be encountered.
