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Located in the heart of Europe Germany forms a central node in the European railway network with borders to many countries. There are 6 ETCS corridors crossing Germany, thus Germany forms the hub in rail traffic for people and goods and plays an important role for the deployment of ERTMS in Europe.

In 2018 Deutsche Bahn introduced their ambitious digital rail programme Digitale Schiene Deutschland, (Digital Rail Germany) which aims to increase rail capacity by 20%, remove traditional signals and operate over 80% of the 33,500-kilometre-long network digitally.

Ahead of the Train Control Management Systems Summit 2020 we spoke to Joern Schlichting, Head of ETCS Programme at Deutsche Bahn. Joern explores the European ERTMS migration strategy and delves into how digitalisation will increase capacity, save costs, help overcome demographic workforce challenges and maintain the railway network’s competitiveness in the longer term.

Sydney’s heavy rail network has served the city and surrounding regions for more than a hundred years. Over that time, systems have become outdated and management and maintenance of the network has grown incredibly complex.

The network is also carrying more people than ever. It took 160 years for the railway to reach 300 million journeys annually and just five years for that total to reach 404 million. That’s a 30 per cent increase in annual journeys since 2013. Demand will continue to grow. Between 2016 and 2056, the population of Greater Sydney is expected to increase by around 40 per cent, from 4.7 million to 8 million people.

Download our exclusive article with Nikolai Prince Director of Rail Service Planning at Transport for NSW to explore their Future Rail Programme and operational blueprint. 

From the invention of the wheel to the steam engine, the telegram to the wireless radio transmitter, technology has long been a feature of infrastructure projects. However, the exponential growth and adoption of new technologies, combined with a significant uplift in infrastructure investment in recent times, means that today it is rare to see an infrastructure project without a technology element.

In this paper, we unpack some of the key issues from a legal and commercial perspective that arise when implementing new technologies in an infrastructure environment. We look at how those issues might be addressed depending on whether you take an infrastructure or technology mindset, and we propose ways to meet the novel demands of “infratech” projects. Download the full paper to learn more. 

With the increased investment from the Australian Government on transport infrastructure, signalling and train control systems are being pushed to the forefront in an effort to more effectively meet growing need and passenger demand.

Customers today demand flexibility, real-time travel information and updates, omni-channel ticketing options and transparency from their rail operators. Delivering such an experience however requires deeper understanding of customer insights, technology integration across various platforms and deeper cross collaboration between various stakeholders and the multiple facets of a metropolitan rail operation.

More and more TCMS, and the increased monitoring capability they facilitate, are being harnessed to increase train throughput, increase passenger and rail operator safety and switch rolling stock monitoring and conditioning from the reactive to the proactive. All of this combines to help meet the elusive ‘passenger experience’ goal.

Ahead of the Train Control Management Systems Summit 2020 (TCMS 2020) we take a look at how two metropolitan rail operators, Sydney Trains and Cross River Rail, are transforming their TCMS to open lines of communication between drivers, control centres and passengers to optimise the customer experience.