Belgian rail operator, Infrabel, and Alstom have just signed a framework contract aimed at continuing the deployment of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS 1) in Belgium.
The framework contract covers provisions for equipping and configuring 4,000 signals with beacons, together with a 15-year maintenance agreement.
Within this framework, Infrabel has just awarded Alstom a €29.5 million order for the supply of Atlas 100 2 and TBL1+ equipment. Infrabel will handle the equipment’s installation.
The contract value could ultimately total €47.5 million.
The TBL1+ driver assistance system and ETCS 3 speed control system are crucial to railway safety.
They trigger automatic braking when a train exceeds the authorised speed limit as it approaches signals requiring a stop, as well as automatic braking when such signals are crossed.
Placed at regular intervals along the track, the beacons communicate directly with the ETCS equipment on board trains.
This arrangement has a number of advantages. It continually controls the trains’ maximum authorised speed and guarantees interoperability throughout the European system, making it unnecessary to equip cross-border trains with several different systems.
The equipment is slated for delivery between 2013 and 2018, in accordance with an accelerated rollout schedule for TBL1+.
In a second phase, after the software is updated, the technology will be brought into full compliance with the pan-European ETCS standard by the year 2022.
With Alstom’s help, Infrabel is pulling out all the stops to make the Belgian rail network one of Europe’s three safest.
“This order shows that Alstom’s proven technology is recognised as meeting the ETCS standard at a competitive price,” confirms Marcel Miller, President of Alstom Belgium.
In Europe, Alstom’s ETCS technology is used on nearly 30% of track and 60% of trains equipped of these solutions (i.e. some 2,700 trains, including 1,300 already in commercial service).
