France
Alstom’s simplified CBTC technology to debut in Lille
Lille, which pioneered the VAL automatic light metro system, is at the forefront of technology once more as it is the first metro to install Alstom’s new simplified CBTC system. Urbalis Fluence reduces the amount of lineside equipment by 20% by transferring the interlocking functions to the train, as David Briginshaw reports exclusively for IRJ.
metro, having been invented by Prof Robert Gabillard of Lille North University and developed by Matra (now part of Siemens) for the city’s first metro line which opened 30 years ago in April 1983. The metro is now being upgraded to handle 52m-long trains, double the length of existing trains in a project that includes the first installation of Alstom’s new CBTC system Urbalis Fluence. Today, the Lille metro consists of two lines totalling 45km operated by a fleet of 143 trains with operating headways of just 1 minute. A year ago, Alstom was awarded a É250m contract to modernise the 13.5km Line 1, including the supply of 27 trains and resignalling the line while retaining the 1 minute headways. The new trains are expected to enter service in January 2016 with completion of the project scheduled for 2017.
T
Alstom started to develop its new CBTC system in 2010 following
HE northern French city of Lille was the birthplace of the VAL automatic rubber-tyred light
discussions with more than 30 customers in 15 countries to analyse their requirements and try to develop a product which differentiates itself from other CBTC systems on the market. Up to now automatic train control
(ATC) has always been overlaid on the traditional interlocking sub-system which increases complexity. In conventional CBTC systems, routes are secured by the interlocking. Whether it is a separate cubicle or integrated with the zone controller, the interlocking is functionally a dedicated sub-system. This implies complex interfaces between the interlocking, automatic train supervision (ATS), and the wayside and onboard ATC, in order to achieve the best performance and the shortest headways. Alstom’s research and development
programme focused on a thorough examination of the existing Urbalis CBTC architecture to see whether it was possible to simplify it. The research
concluded that it is possible to integrate the routing and interlocking functions on the train and on the lineside object controllers, so that track resources such as points, flanking, overlap, and platform screen doors can be booked directly by the train to the object controllers, removing the traditional and unnecessary split into separate sub- systems, ie the ATC and interlocking (Figure 1). Another innovation is direct train-to-train communication, for simpler communication paths and shorter response times.
Mission
At the start of a train’s service, or for any movement, the train receives its mission, such as the schedule or next station, from the ATS. As the track description is already embedded onboard the train as with any CBTC system, the train is able to
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