FRMCS moves forward

The race is on for the rail industry to develop a replacement for GSM-R, the radio telecoms' element of ERTMS.

IN 2015, GSM-R suppliers informed the rail industry that GSM-R will be obsolete by 2030. While they have committed to supporting GSM-R until 2030, and in some cases beyond that to 2035 and even 2040, there is a risk that components will cease to be available, and GSM-R will cease to function.

According to Ms Begoña Domingo, ERTMS project officer with the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), some infrastructure managers have indicated they may need to start procurement as early as 2030.

GSM-R is a 2G-based telecoms system dating from 1997. Today, it covers around 130,000km in Europe and about 210,000km worldwide. The current 4G standard does not include the spectrum used by GSM-R.

“We have to move forward to the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS),” Mr Josef Doppelbauer, executive director of ERA, told IRJ in Valenciennes. “The whole world is using Internet Protocol (IP) now and is moving to 6G, 7G and beyond.” (IRJ - International Rail Journal)

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