02 SIGNALLING & TELECOMMUNICATIONSSUPPLEMENT Michel Boudoussier
Chief Operating Officer, Eurotunnel
Eurotunnel is switching to digital and remains at the forefront of technology
Eurotunnel has decided to install the latest radio communication technologies in the Channel Tunnel by the year 2014, to provide total interoperability with the whole Trans-European railway. It is in this context that greater cooperation has come about with RFF (Réseau Ferré de France), and a contract amounting to approximately €11 million to pool equipment (network, fixed terminal servers) and maintenance. This agreement is part of the programme to renew the Channel Tunnel’s communication systems being implemented with Alcatel- Lucent since an initial contract for €21.5 million was signed in December 2009.
On conclusion of these innovations, the current analogue radio communication systems in the Channel Tunnel will be replaced by a digital system, GSM-R (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway), a com - ponent of ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System). Always at the cutting edge, Eurotunnel is
European Railway Review Volume 18, Issue 1, 2012
seeking to provide crews responsible for maintenance or operations with advanced technological equipment so that, when needed for cooperative work, communication can be rapid and effective. Tunnels with traffic as intense as the Channel Tunnel are rare – it has a train pass through every 3 minutes on average. This high level of daily performance is made
possible precisely because the tunnel is equipped with a very high performance communication system. When the Tunnel was being built,
Eurotunnel chose to rely on technologies which were already proven at the time. Therefore the radio communication systems installed by Motorola at the beginning of the 1990s are
based on analogue radio standards: A ‘concession radio’ system, a private 3RP shared resources radio network to standard MPT1327 ensures radio communication for general use over the whole Concession. This limited capacity system covers all of the three tunnels, through 150km of radiating cable.
A ‘track-to-train’ system to British Rail
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