LEVEL CROSSING SAFETYSUPPLEMENT 5


WESTeX® – improving safety and reducing cost


A key priority of many railway operators the world over is to improve the safety of level crossings. Pieter Rypma, Business Development Manager at Invensys Rail, talks to European Railway Reviewto highlight the importance of their WESTeX® range.


Miniature Stop Light (MSL) sites across the UK. The UK sites installed so far have included complications such as TI21 track circuits, TCAIDs, signal regulation and station controls and the GCP3000 certificate has now been extended to cover these. Since the commissionings, there are no reported problems on any of the GCP3000 installations, totalling over 200,000 hours in use. For Finland, we have installed and received


Invensys Rail’s level crossing controllers deliver consistently safe performance and high reliability for their customers


What products and services can Invensys Rail offer the European railway industry? Invensys Rail is a world leader in advanced signalling and integrated control systems for mainline and mass transit railways, with the company’s solutions at the heart of many of the world’s major transport networks. From simple, single lines to heavy haul freight, inter- city, suburban and urban mass transit railways, our advanced range of products, systems and services combine to provide fully tailored solutions. From versatile train control and train protection systems (including ERTMS level 1 and 2 solutions) to the latest flexible modular signalling systems and level crossing controllers, each of our systems delivers the consistently safe performance and high reliability that is demanded by modern railway operators.


What can you tell us about Invensys Rail’s portfolio of products and solutions specifically for the development of railway level crossing safety? Our WESTeX® range provides a complete suite of products and systems for level crossings, for a wide range of applications. The core range includes level crossing predictors, level crossing


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controllers and lightweight barrier machines – each of which delivers high quality, cost-effective level crossing control performance. The WESTeX® range has been developed to address every aspect of level crossing delivery, from design through to commissioning – not just technology or equipment. This ‘whole system’ approach has proved to be particularly successful – compared to conventional technology, the WESTeX® suite of products not only delivers safe and reliable performance, but also significant efficiency gains in terms of reduced capital and on-going operational expenditure and minimised whole life costs, all with safety in mind.


What railway operators in Europe is Invensys Rail working with to ensure their level crossing systems are safe and secure? We have worked closely with Network Rail, Translink (Northern Ireland Railways) and Liikennevirasto (the Finnish Transport Agency) and more recently with Kollektivtransport - produksjon AS (KTP) in Oslo. Following the successful completion of trial


sites and approvals, a number of GCP3000 Level Crossing Predictor sites have now been commissioned and are successfully operating at


full approval for the GCP3000 system on a number of sites since 2008, fully meeting Finnish Rato requirements and providing high reliability and safe operation with zero failure hours. The systems are working in extremely harsh environments with winter weather as cold as –35°C.


What sets Invensys Rail apart from its competitors and what is your future vision/mission? Traditionally, the warning sequence for a level crossing is initiated at a fixed point on an approach. In practice though, not all trains travel at maximum speed, in which case the road will be closed for longer than is necessary, resulting in unnecessary delays and the potential for frustration and impatience amongst road users. WESTeX® predictor technology continually monitors the speed of each approaching train, enabling the Level Crossing Predictor to calculate the time at which it will arrive at the crossing. Consequently, the warning sequence can be triggered at the optimum point, providing a consistent, pre-determined warning period to road traffic for each train, regardless of its approach speed. WESTeX® not only helps to improve


safety, but also significantly reduces cost and for road traffic users, it can be a lifesaver and not a time waster.


www.invensysrail.com


European Railway Review Volume 17, Issue 4, 2011


Credit: Robert Smith 2011


INTERVIEW SPOTLIGHT


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