A better ETCS onboard, no more no less

Over the past two decades, the idea of an open railway network across Europe has made significant progress. A tipping point has been reached. All European countries are now planning the roll out of ERTMS. The system is not only seen as enabling an open market, but also as a necessary technology for maximizing both passenger and freight capacity, and reducing the environmental impact of European transportation.

As the urgency for deploying ETCS grows every day, railway operators struggle.

“To put it simply, for an operator like us, installing, upgrading and maintaining ETCS or similar signalling systems is too expensive, too slow, too difficult, and overall, too inflexible. Railway is a world where customization is often necessary, and upgrading current systems is often technically impossible or prohibitively expensive. The current ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach taken by many vendors simply does not work for the railway industry. We need a different model where we can buy standard components that can be licensed once, then configured at a reasonable cost by engineering teams or contractors. … And all that at a reasonable and predictable life cycle cost.” Bruno Vanlede, Lineas

The market needed a company able to address these challenges. The Signalling Company is the result of a joint-venture between two Belgian companies: ERTMS Solutions, an industry leader in railway testing, maintenance and systems integration, and Lineas, the largest private rail freight operator in Europe.

It starts by providing a competitive ETCS onboard solution by February 2024. It will revolutionize the ETCS user experience with game-changing features such as:

• Unlimited Baseline evolutions
• SIDE (Safe Integrated Development Environment)
• Safe over-the-air software updates
• Simplified hardware architecture in line with OCORA

And the story is unlikely to stop there. ETCS is already planning to add automation to its protocols, slowly moving toward driverless trains. And the need for a better onboard vital computer platform far exceeds the boundaries of the ERTMS world.

Do you want to be part of this new adventure, as a customer, an employee or a partner? Contact info@thesignallingcompany.com.

Read the whole story on www.thesignallingcompany.com.

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