Australia’s train signalling to go digital
Australia is fast-tracking its transition to digital train signalling systems with the Australian Rail Track Corporation working in collaboration with U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin for trials of the proposed digital signalling system.
ARCTC is the federal government agency that manages bulk of Australia’s interstate freight and passenger rail network. According to Tim Ryan, ARTC’s executive general manager, the shadow trial of Advanced Train Management Systems on trains has been on between the South Australian cities of Port Augusta and Whyalla.
“ATMS uses GPRS to gather speed and location information from trains, and then send instructions to the cabin. It potentially allows us intervene remotely if a train is travelling too far or too fast,” Ryan told IT news.
After the culmination of the ongoing trial, ARTC will roll out the digital technology across Australia in 2017, starting with Nullabor railway between Tarcoola in South Australia and Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
Replacing analogue systems
Under the new digital technology, the good old analogue systems will be replaced, marking a departure from the mechanical signals that used to guide train drivers in choosing the track they have to travel on. The analogue system is replete with many risks and it has been hard to update the network operators on the precise location of a train or how fast the train is travelling.
The advantage with modern digital signalling systems, such as the advanced train management system of ARTC, is that there will be a real-time display at the driver’s cabin. Digital signalling also enables greater network capacity, operational flexibility, transit times and greater rail safety.
Telstra contract
Significantly, the transition trials follow ARTC’s switch over of its communications from legacy networks to Telstra’s Next-G network. “Going from analogue to digital opened up applications such as remote train health and location monitoring,” noted Ryan.
Telstra’s ongoing multimillion-dollar contract with the ARTC will be providing the 8,500km national freight network with high-speed telecommunications services in the next 10 years.
Telstra's Chief Customer Officer for Global Enterprise Services, Martijn Blanken, told Zd Net that a combination of ARTC's vision on rail innovation and Telstra's agile communications created a mobile and cloud-based solution that will move the national rail freight sector forward. Telstra already has purpose built 70 base stations along the train network's route for providing 3G voice and data, backed by an Iridium-powered Telstra satellite service.
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