Making it happen: ERTMS at a tipping point

THE ERTMS conference was opened by Mr Josef Doppelbauer, executive director of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA), who set the scene. “Make it happen is the theme of this year’s conference,” he told delegates. “We need ERTMS to complete the Single European Railway Area (Sera). ERTMS and Sera are the basis for modal shift to rail.”

In other words, ERTMS will achieve the interoperability between national networks with disparate signalling systems long craved by the European Union (EU). ERTMS is a cornerstone for interoperability that will allow other building blocks such as harmonisation of train length and loading gauge for freight.

“One of the main advantages of ERTMS is that it will improve safety,” Doppelbauer continued. He explained that in Europe there are many lines which are still not fitted with signalling systems meeting the standard of Safety Integrity Level 4 (SIL 4), where the probability of a single error is once every 10,000 years. “ERTMS will improve operational reliability because it is a more modern system with less trackside equipment. ERTMS is also the basis for digitalisation and automation.”