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Category: Technical Papers | ||
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Files: 20 | |
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This paper delivers a process of changing the signalling system of an operating railway (a brownfield resignalling project) whilst maintaining resilience during the difficult period of change (the transition period). Conventional resignalling projects have traditionally included a transition state. This would typically involve new signals being erected in advance of the changeover weekend and covered with a hood and a white cross, and pre-installing wiring at interfaces. As signalling technology has moved onto the train, the changes required when replacing signalling technology have become more complicated. The number of players interacting with the signalling system has increased, and the commercial arrangements between those players has become more complex. The result of this is that the ability to change the whole system over one weekend has reduced. There are only two solutions to this challenge: one solution is to introduce a significant closure of the whole system (typically three months or more); the alternative is to break the change into a number of steps, each of which is manageable over a weekend. This introduces temporary operating states (Transition States) between the current state and the final state but reduces the overall project transition risk. This paper explains in further detail the need for such Transition States, and discusses the three different changeover methods. It concludes that change should be introduced in as few complex stages as possible, and that each stage should carry project risk that is just less than the maximum risk that the railway organisation is prepared to accept. |
Size | 293.83 KB |
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Applications of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in Railways are becoming more and more frequent. So far, the focus has been on non-safety related applications, such as passenger information systems and freight logistics, When moving GNSS applications into the domain of safety, such as for train control systems, a much better understanding of GNSS behaviour is needed. This is especially true for standardised applications, such as within the European Many research projects have already investigated the use of GNSS in safety critical railway applications, such as GALOROI, GRAIL, NGTC, ERSAT to just name a few. These projects had varying goals, from building a simple demonstrator |
Size | 2.91 MB |
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The benefits in using standardised designs for signalling installations have long been recognised. As technology advances, so too have the methods and opportunities available to utilise these efficiencies. Throughout the history of signalling, various levels and methods of standardised design have been deployed: In each instance, both benefits and impediments arose. Within the Processor-Based Interlocking (PBI) era, there has been a drift towards the provision of “rule sets”, which are closed to the signal designer; however, provide consistency and efficiency. Rule sets may be locked to a particular PBI, however, may also take the form of a specification which can be applied on many processor-based platforms. Key considerations, therefore, include requirements definition, validation, traceability, security and documentation.
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Size | 242.29 KB |
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The November 2016 Kaikoura Earthquake was the largest disaster to ever strike New Zealand’s railway in terms of amount of damage. Large parts of the Main North Line (MNL) Railway were engulfed in huge slips or thrown into the sea. Bridges were destroyed and tunnels broken. The damage to the railway and State Highways disconnected New Zealand’s transport system. The subsequent response and rebuild has challenged not just KiwiRail but New Zealand’s construction industry overall. It has resulted in the biggest rail project in the South Island of New Zealand since the Second World War. As part of that project, the need for considering resilience has had to be faced. How this would be defined, the analysis undertaken to quantify it and the work done to achieve it are part of this paper. Some of the resilience factors considered are of international significance. These factors include analysis of tolerance to seismic and storm events as well as matching with required levels of service. This paper will also outline some of the internationally award-winning works that have been undertaken on the railway to achieve reopening the line in only 10 months after the earthquake, despite been hit by several tropical cyclones during the reinstatement works. Improvements to service levels are also addressed. |
Size | 2.78 MB |
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With an aging signal asset and increasing capital works program the KiwiRail team have been pushed to increase deliveryand reduce timeframes. In order to meet the increased capital and renewals programs, the engineering team have beenworking on the development of standard base designs to improve procurement plans, standardise equipment and reduceend to end project delivery time. |
Size | 1.19 MB |
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One of the key advantages that rail transportation has over its road-based competitors is that of driver efficiency. Typically a train will need less drivers to get from A to B for a given load (be it humans or freight) compared to the number of road vehicles required to transport the same load. However, there is an emerging risk that this significant railvs- road advantage is about to be eroded. Huge amounts of R&D spending has been invested globally over the last 5-10 years in the pursuit of self-driving cars and trucks. Will this become a serious threat to rail’s competitiveness?
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Size | 402.08 KB |
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The evolution of digital technologies and information and communication technologies represents a great opportunity forrailway managers and operators to manage efficiently the railway infrastructure and to improve their services. Important steps in this direction have already been taken by railway equipment suppliers, and smart solutions areavailable in the market. This paper describes the innovative solutions for the digitalization of railway infrastructure and the achievement of highcapacity, reliable, and cost-efficient rail transport. Two solutions are described: The evolution of ETCS, for improving network capacity, and minimizing infrastructureupgrading, and the Intelligent Asset Management System, for exploiting the vast amount of available data bytransforming it into knowledge for supporting decision-making. These two solutions provide a broader vision of a futurerailway by forming part of an integrated transport eco-system in which information is exchanged between differentservice providers and transportation modes ultimately to deliver reliable integrated mobility. |
Size | 1.38 MB |
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Assurance is increasingly being mandated for Australian rail projects as the means to satisfy ever-increasing governance requirements. The size and complexity of projects like Sydney Metro, Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel, and Brisbane’s Cross River Rail require consortium-based delivery models, be that Alliances, Public Private Partnerships, or some combination resulting in many interfaces, not only within the project delivery structure but with many stakeholders. Hence the need to assure that project outcomes will be achieved. Assurance however is not a guarantee of the project objectives. Assurance is about providing a level of confidence that the objectives will be achieved, and hopefully increasing that level of confidence as the project progresses through its development lifecycle. However, when delivering fixed assets and rolling stock, project sponsors and RTOs need to be assured that they are not just safe but are also fit-for-purpose in terms of functionality, performance (deliver the task and responsiveness), configurability, constructability & testability, reliability and availability, security, and supportability over the service life expected. The paper elaborates these fit-for-purpose attributes and proposes two key aspects for any Assurance Case; namely compliance and correctness. |
Size | 747.5 KB |
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Engineering process embraces tools, methodologies and resources to make sure the outcome of engineering process is safe so far as is reasonably practical (SFAIRP) and that there is a clear and transparent translation of the document application that leads to efficiency. Currently, significant focus is on integration. Digital engineering is just one aspect of integration. In our signalling discipline, there can be some challenges when delivering a project, for example: senior designers not having enough time to guide younger designers. Consequently this could lead inexperienced designers to apply outdated standards. Similarly, when approved drawing revisions are updated, there is potential for incorrect and outdated versions to be utilised by installation and test teams. These two examples will lead to significant rework and delivering poor project outcomes.
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Size | 1.15 MB |
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Modern rail projects are complex. They use multiple systems and need to be planned, designed, constructed, interfaced, intergrated and tested in an agreed and assured manner to commission a safe, reliable, available and maintainable system. With the help of advanced technology, a Holistic Systems Engineering Assurance methodology can be implementaed at the beginning of a project and carried forward through the whole life cycle to ensure successfuc completion o fhte project. This paper answers:
This paper aims to establish a well-defined Systems Engineering Assurance framework to achieve the performance levels that are important to and expected by stakeholders. |
Size | 1.17 MB |
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In October 2013, the author and his colleague presented a white paper to the IRSE Perth Technical Meeting entitled“ETCS L2 and CBTC over LTE – Convergence of the radio layer in advanced Train Control System”. The paperdescribed the trends towards using increasingly similar hardware platforms to implement different Train Control Systemapplications, and how that trend could affect the radio component of those same Train Control Systems. The paper identified 3GPP defined Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as an emerging radio technology that could act as acommon train-to-trackside transport layer that replaced the existing radio layers of the main Automatic Train Control applications of the day, European Train Control System (ETCS) and Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC). Half a decade has passed since that paper was first presented, and natural passage of time begs the question: what hasbeen the evolution of Automatic Train Control systems since then? Have our 2013 predictions proved accurate? Andwhat can be said about what is likely to happen in the next five years? This paper will re-visit the postulates presented back in 2013 and review them against the actual technological evolutionof the last five years, by drawing a picture of the current state of affairs in this technology space. |
Size | 269.94 KB |
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Urban Circus has had the opportunity to work alongside Metro Trains Melbourne and the Level Crossings Removal Projects on the signal sighting for the Carrum to Kananook Level Crossing Removal Project on the Frankston Line. Utilising our in-house 3D visualisation tool, a myriad of data types and our Signalling Workflow Methodology, we were able to enhance and support the design, validation and approval process of the Signalling Arrangement Plan. This paper shares our findings while working on the Carrum to Kananook Level Crossing Removal Project. The biggest learning for us was the level of collaboration and interaction that the process within the workflow created. |
Size | 1.6 MB |
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Size | 4.28 MB |
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Automatic Selective Door Operation system automatically determines the doors to enable at a given platform. It also triggers visual/audio announcements to inform passengers where doors remain closed and guiding passengers in adequate time to alight the train from through the train where doors are opened. This function reduces the role the train crew have to perform with respect to door operations, to correctly positioning the train and then operating the door release button. Management of abnormal or degraded situations are addressed through manual override. Correct side door enable function is part of the Automatic Selective Door Operation System. With this function doors on the opposite side of the platform are inhibited. Correct side door enabling function can be enabled automatically by the Automatic Selective Door Operations system without intervention from train crew or through verification and then selection from train crew. This paper discusses the implementation Automatic Selective Door Operation System and Correct Side Door Enable Function, where the position and system data are obtained using the Eurobalise and an on-train Eurobalise reader using the ERTMS/ETCS system, on the Sydney Trains Network as part of the New Intercity Fleet project. This paper focuses on the integration of new technology into existing operations including maintenance considerations, Human Factors, interfacing and integrating with existing projects that are being deployed simultaneously along with New Intercity Fleet project and finally this paper concludes with the lessons learned. |
Size | 589.72 KB |
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The mode selection function allows switching between the operating modes of the High Capacity Metro Train (HCMT) for the Metro Tunnel Project (MTP) in Melbourne, i.e. conventional signalling and CBTC modes under normal and degraded operating modes of High Capacity Signalling (HCS). The task of specifying and designing the associated systems (cab HMI, on-board CBTC, people and process) is complex, made so by the more obvious issues of multiple stakeholders, but also by the less obvious issues of our preconceptions and experiences. Each of these needs to adapt to some extent for integration to be successful. This paper provides a general context for the MTP and HCS scope and technical content from which a case study of the mode selection function is then presented. That illustrates how diversity of knowledge inputs and previous experience provides both positive and negative influence in reaching an outcome. Established principles of designing for driver interaction are discussed alongside the designer interactions and preconceptions as they are equally part of the human in the overall system. The seemingly simple act of appreciating the different perspectives and seeking to understand where the other party is coming from influence what the design outcome is, but also change how that is arrived at. |
Size | 1.33 MB |
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Ballarat Line Upgrade (BLU) is the first project in the $1.75 billion dollar portfolio of Region Rail Revival program that will see upgrades to every regional passenger train line in Victoria. Even more so, BLU is one of several Victorian rail projects taking place concurrently in the recent years of infrastructure boom. This brings a great security to those in the railway industry to not move interstate looking for project work but also brings many challenges to meet infrastructure needs. The paper intends to briefly outline the BLU project and provide a signalling perspective in the success and challenges of delivering major capital works. The content will mainly relate to signalling delivery, design, technology choices, program, procurement, standards, resource, cost, and time will be explored with practical application through past and recent experiences. The future of delivery of projects has an opportunity to share the lessons learnt with industry to mature and streamline the processes and applications of delivery. |
Size | 669.29 KB |
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Any change to an operational system in the railway industry is met with rigorously engineered safety controls – whether it be a signalling system or a power distribution system, a strong emphasis is placed on engineering out risk: equipment should be designed and built with high resiliency, redundancy, availability, and so on. And yet even the most perfectly engineered signals, plant or rolling stock are still operated at some point by a human.
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Size | 344.6 KB |
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A recap on the Younger Members event which was held prior to the July Technical Conference in Ballarat Victoria. |
Size | 1.53 MB |
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The Victorian tram and train networks operate on a Franchise Model that includes both the operation and maintenance of the networks’ assets, with the contracts managed by Public Transport Victoria (PTV). PTV identified that to better manage investment decisions and to prepare for the next franchise contract, it needed a more comprehensive understanding of the long-term condition of its assets whose lifespan far exceeds rail franchise contract terms. This paper outlines the steps PTV undertook to kick-start the journey of enhanced asset knowledge through the delivery of Phase 1 of the Asset Condition Assessment Program (ACAP). During Phase 1, a suite of asset condition assessment guidelines was developed and baseline asset condition assessments for every asset type within the metro rail and tram infrastructure, rolling stock and OCMS asset classes were undertaken. The team developed a data rich framework which represents a paradigm shift to the transport sector’s view of asset condition by understanding the life ending dominant failure modes of assets and identifying metrics to repeatedly measure the lead indicators of failure. Phase 1 of ACAP is due for completion by July 2019 and is expected to demonstrate the following outcomes that will be presented to the audience: |
Size | 681.18 KB |
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A recent IRSE article discussed ‘why do signalling projects fail’ and provided valuable insights into what defines a failed project, as well as the inherent risks that contribute to this. It was identified that the primary challenge is to optimise project scope whilst ensuring it is compatible with project schedule and cost constraints and considering signalling project delivery risks (Rumsey 2018). Achieving this trade-off for signalling ‘brownfield’ sites can be even more challenging due to the legacy issues and complexities involved. |
Size | 1.12 MB |