Digital Railway - Telecoms Technologies for the Elizabeth Line - An Infrastructure Manager’s Perspective

Abstract

The construction of the Elizabeth Line by the Crossrail project and its operation by the Infrastructure Managers has brought together a whole new set of technologies for Operating and Maintaining a railway, never seen together before in London, the UK and further afield. This paper describes the communications technologies which have been designed, built, extensively tested in both factory and site settings, configured and commissioned ready for the Operation of the Elizabeth Line and its full opening to the public in 2022. This description and appreciation is given from the perspective of a new Infrastructure Manager, Rail For London Infrastructure, showing how the technologies have been incorporated into the new business of running the Elizabeth Line. Communications technologies are finding their way into every aspect of railway Operations and this paper shows that a step change in their use will have been achieved with the opening of the Elizabeth Line and that the data, information and connectivity provided by their use will bring the railway to a new level of enhanced passenger service in the 21st century and beyond.