THE RAILWAY RESEARCH INSTITUTE HAS JOINED THE VERY FEW RESEARCH UNITS TO OFFER TESTS OF THE ERTMS/ETCS SYSTEM LEVEL 1
New test stand of the Railway Research Institute – IK
On 01.08.2016, a new research stand for tests of the onboard system ERTMS/ETCS L1 was launched on the Circular Test Track in Żmigród. The new stand had been constructed within the Department’s own work 8901/10 „Implementation of level 1 ERTMS/ETCS on the Circular Test Track of the Railway Research Institute “.
The test stand comprised the following main elements:
The ERTMS/ETCS system level 1 - ALTRAC 6413 (together with switchable and non switcheable balises, lineside electronic units (LEU)
Five-aspect signal together with additional light (orange, green) and W24 – TD2 indicator;
Three- aspect block signal together with W18 – TD1 indicator;
Simulator for signals transmitted by semaphores;
balises programmer PTE2000;
container – ERTMS/ETCS test stand.
Taking into consideration the functional conditions of the system it is in line with:
2012/88/EU: Commission Decision of 25 January 2012 on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the control-command and signalling subsystems of the trans-European rail system (with further amendments);
Functional Requirements Specification ERA/ERTMS/003204 ERTMS/ETCS FRS version 5.0 an
Functional Requirements Specification UNISING SUBSET- 026 SRS version 2.3.0d.
The installation of the level 1 of the system ERTMS/ETCS on the circular test ring in Żmigród enabled the Railway Research Institute to join the very few research units in Europe which offer tests of the ERTMS/ETCS system level 1 while limiting to the minimum tests conducted on actively used railway infrastructure. The newly constructed test stand enables to test onboard devices of the ERTMS/ETCS L1 in the full range of operational scenarios of cooperation between vehicle and track-side infrastructure. Due to limiting the number of tests necessary to be conducted on the railway tracks managed by PKP PLK S.A. which are equipped with ERTMS/ETCS level 1 (short time of accessibility of the lines per 24 hours, night tests), the testing time will improve (shortening of the tests` time).
Thanks to the accomplished investment of construction of the ERTMS/ETCS level 1, the Railway Research Institute may conduct a comprehensive certification of the traction vehicles within compliance with requirements of the TSI “Signaling” without using the PKP PLK S.A. infrastructure.
