Abstract
Over the recent years, an increase in the demand for passenger and freight rail transport services has been observed. This is mainly owing to the policy objectives related to the use eco-friendly means of transport and the investment causing the quality of rail services to grow. Along with the growing demand for rail transport, a problem of railway capacity utilisation has emerged. Although the implementation of the new Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system increases the safety level, but under some scenarios, it may decrease the headways between trains. At the same time, the ATP systems enables train positioning based on odometry calculation and reporting it to the trackside system. This paper proposes a solution that involves application of virtual block sections which use the train position reporting feature of the ATP system for the determination of non-occupancy. Virtual blocks can successfully reduce headways in railway lines without increasing the number of trackside signalling devices. The capacity assessment proposed under the study was performed to calculate the average headway depending on the signalling system configuration.
Highlights
Insufficient railway line capacity translates into the necessity of either limiting the rail transport offering or re-routing trains on alternative lines, which may cause the rail transport to cease being competitive compared with road transport
The study addressed in the paper comprised preliminary examination of the effect of the solution proposed by the authors, assuming virtual blocks (WOB), on the railway line capacity, and the following: 1. minimum headway times were calculated for train traffic where trackside signalling equipment was in operation; 2. minimum headway times were calculated for train traffic where the Automatic Train Protection (ATP)
The authors of the paper have discussed the effect exerted by application of the ETCS Level 2 on the braking distance vis-à-vis the traditional approach based on standardized braking distances which determine the positioning of trackside signals, and have presented method for additional block division based on virtual blocks
Summary
Insufficient railway line capacity translates into the necessity of either limiting the rail transport offering or re-routing trains on alternative lines, which may cause the rail transport to cease being competitive compared with road transport. In contrast to the Automatic Train Braking System (SHP), the on-board ATP (Automatic Train Protection) computer of the ETCS performs continuous supervision of the permissible train running speed depending on the train’s position. This supervision is based on movement authorization, on the infrastructure-specific data acquired from the trackside equipment, as well as on the given train’s braking system specifications, among other parameters. One of the ways to increase this capacity when designing the railway traffic control system is, for instance, increasing the number of aspects of the block system, making it necessary to add new non-occupancy control sections Such solutions generate additional investment and maintenance costs for the railway line. What the paper provides is a preliminary assessment of the solution proposed in terms of its effect on the capacity parameters
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