Rapid transit CBTC extends its reach


São Paulo will install CBTC on three of its commuter lines.


CBTC is already the train control system of choice for new metro projects and is gaining favour for metro resignalling schemes as well as high-capacity commuter rail projects. The reasons why and some of the issues surrounding CBTC were debated at last November’s Global Transport Forum conference on CBTC, as David Briginshaw reports from Amsterdam.


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NCREASING demand for urban rail is spurring the construction of new lines and putting many


existing metros and commuter rail operations under growing strain. But building new underground lines is very costly. Similarly upgrading existing underground lines by extending station platforms to allow the operation of longer trains is prohibitively expensive and disruptive and in most cases out of the question. For new projects, the goal should be to develop solutions that optimise the capacity of costly infrastructure, while for existing lines the objective should be to get more out of what has already been built. These twin objectives help to explain why more and more operators


IRJ February 2013


are turning to Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) with its ability to provide headways of less than 90 seconds while maximising the flexibility in the way the line is operated. CBTC permits a reduction in capital and operating costs because short headways allow high capacity to be achieved with short trains and station platforms, while automatic driverless operation means fewer staff are needed. Mr Thierry Bonnefous, urban solutions director with Alstom, explained that conversion of metro Line 1 in Milan to CBTC operation has increased capacity by 20% with the same length trains running more frequently which has boosted both ridership and revenue. Mr Dan Filip, director of business


development and transportation solutions with Thales, revealed that introduction of CBTC on the Muni Metro LRT network in San Francisco increased capacity sufficiently to avert the need for a new line, while in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, CBTC avoided the necessity for 36-car trains and exceptionally long platforms to move the vast numbers of pilgrims between religious sites, by permitting a more flexible operation using convoys of three 12-car trains running at 90-second headways, giving a capacity of 72,000 passengers/hour/direction. The benefits of fully-automatic driverless operation are already apparent in Singapore where the North East, Downtown and Circle lines have


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