Technology

There are currently two main technology choices used for railway radio communications, mobile telephone (GSM/LTE) or Wi-Fi. GSM-R private networks are used predominately for main line track-to-train voice and ETCS (European Train Control System) data applications, with LTE/5G likely to be...

At a recent IRSE section event in Birmingham, Tim Lane, principal strategy and innovation manager, Network Rail Telecom (NRT), gave a presentation on Network Rail’s latest innovations in telecommunications and how these may be applied to future deployment on the...

For ten years, the innovation conference run by the Railway Industry Association (RIA) has gone from strength to strength and, in 2018, won the Trade Association Forum’s best conference award. This year, it attracted a record 288 delegates and took...

The safe operation and signalling of single-line railways are crucial as any head-on crash between two trains is potentially catastrophic. Incidents of this nature are thankfully very rare as the systems devised to allow only one train into a single-line...

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) were first defined by NASA in 1989 as a method of classifying the maturity of a technology or product during its development and acquisition. Originally seven in number, this was increased to...

A regular concern within the rail industry has long been the conflict between the need for standards and the wish to be able to react flexibly and responsively to actual needs. This is often presented as a fight between central...

Network Rail has announced plans to conduct a survey of more than 850 route miles of track across Wales and the border counties of England. This includes the proposed and current Transport for Wales (TfW) Rail Services...

It is easy to forget that GSM-R, as the standardised track to train radio system across Europe, has been around for over 25 years. The agreement to use GSM technology rather than Tetra was arrived at back in 1992, with...

The Thameslink north-south rail link across London is nearing fulfilment. Despite the timetable problems back in May 2018, the enhanced capacity on the route is already easing the daily commutes for thousands of people. When it reaches its full potential of...

Faults tend to have significant impact on railway performance, disrupting or stopping train movement. Railway administrators make significant efforts to reduce or eliminate sources of failures. So-called ‘single point’ failures are often the most difficult to deal with as there...