LONDON UNDERGROUND
The time is right for metros
Cities around the world are investing heavily in metro systems and the UK is no exception. Andrew Roden reveals why Invensys Rail is helping drive this metro boom
maintained.
CBTC sounds simple in principle but it belies the massive development effort to bring it to today’s peak of efficiency. Invensys Rail’s CBTC systems are proven in service but developing the hardware is only part of the story.
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In order to maximise the benefits over conventional signalling, a holistic and highly- specialised approach must be taken in the system design process.
rom North America to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, something quite remarkable is happening. Cities blighted by soaring road congestion are turning to metro systems to unblock the streets and improve residents’ quality of life.
The milestone metro opening last year may have been in Dubai - the first such system on the Arabian peninsula - but we shouldn’t overlook the huge investment in new and upgraded networks taking place on every inhabited continent.
The world’s biggest cities looked to metro systems at the start of the 20th century and today metros are increasingly regarded as the best and often only way to unclog congested roads.
Britain is part of this growing trend too with massive investment in the London Underground - one of the world’s biggest and busiest metros - as well as Glasgow and Newcastle. In Manchester meanwhile, the Metrolink light rail system relies on dedicated former heavy rail rights of way
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for much of its network and is being extended.
The Tyne and Wear Metro is set to be concessioned, bringing with it a swathe of new funding. On Merseyside, although the Merseyrail franchise is considered to be part of the conventional rail network, in practice it operates far more like a metro. In short, there’s a lot going on.
New and upgraded metro systems are far more capable than their counterparts of even 20 years ago, offering greater capacity and service frequency with improved safety, passenger information systems and station environments. Appropriately, the company which is doing more than most to meet modern-day demands for metro equipment is British - Invensys Rail.
The UK is lucky to have well designed and operated metro systems but the potential offered by Invensys Rail’s latest train control systems in terms of increasing capacity and improving service frequency is exciting to say the least.
The company is part of FTSE 100 listed process controls and automation provider Invensys plc and its heritage includes famous names such as Westinghouse Rail Systems which developed and installed the train control equipment for London Underground’s Victoria Line - the world’s first automated metro line.
Recent successes have cemented the company’s strong reputation with contracts won in Sao Paulo, Brazil alongside major work enhancing metros in Singapore and Madrid and key infrastructure on Vancouver’s light rapid transit system, which opened earlier this year.
At the heart of Invensys Rail’s success is its wide range of communications-based train control (CBTC) signalling systems. CBTC uses data transmissions from trains and a sophisticated control centre to allow trains to run far closer together than conventional signalling systems without compromising safety. Automatic operation of trains also means schedules can be kept to more exactly and passenger comfort
Invensys Rail has proved expert in ensuring the design is right the first time to eliminate delays in commissioning train control systems. The train control system on an automated metro is as critical as the trains themselves. If either are delayed, the system cannot run.
Invensys Rail has continuously been developing its CBTC packages and even with the capabilities of today’s offerings it is looking towards the next generation.
There is the potential to use CBTC as the basis for a whole- route management package, encompassing passenger information systems, predictive train maintenance and much more.
It is cutting-edge thinking but Invensys Rail believes the technology is available now to integrate these varying sub-systems. More than forty years after it pioneered automatic train operation on the Victoria Line, it hopes to repeat that success with another groundbreaking step forward.
Oct/Nov 10
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