Digitalising Europe’s railways

As Europe seeks to decarbonise its transport systems and to move people away from private modes of transport, its hesitance in digitalising its railways will need to be overturned.

European rail currently sits in a strong position to take advantage of the decarbonisation agenda that will only be accelerated in the decade to come. Passenger kilometres have grown by over 10 per cent in the past five years, with around 7 per cent of all transport passengers using rail, compared with just 1 per cent in the Americas. The European Green Deal will further prioritise rail travel and this initiative is being matched at the national level. In France, for example, the Government cancelled the provision of short-haul flights as a funding prerequisite for Air France, a move that will most likely drive people towards further use of rail travel.

Despite this strong position, the European rail industry is partly built on antiquated legacy systems that are becoming more difficult and costly to maintain, with some railways having multiple different interlocking types, some more than a century old, and a variety of obsolete trackside technology that can no longer be maintained due to a lack of required technology or spare parts.

Features of digitalised railways such as automated interlocking, train dispatching, and incident handling have been proven to offer benefits in terms of capacity, safety, efficiency, and sustainability. The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) legislation passed in 2000 has led to small improvements in technology, although progress to date has been slow due to the fact that a change from traditional rail to digitalised rail infrastructure requires a “big push” change rather than incremental change that can be managed over time. The regulatory system also being ill equipped for the digital environment means that migration to digital infrastructure is more difficult.

With roughly 60 per cent of the world’s train-control and traffic-management market being located in Europe, it will be incumbent on the market here to modernise along with the rest of the world. European equipment manufacturers such as Alstom, Bombardier, Hitachi Rail STS, Siemens, and Thales have led the way in technological innovations such as moving-block technology, which allows trains to run in the sequence of brake distance, an innovation that has increased capacity by more than 20 per cent on many lines, and in fully autonomous operations, which further increase capacity and safety. These systems have been put into place in collaboration with railroad operators in commercial settings, although at a comparatively small scale when compared to the type of transformation needed.

“The regulatory system also being ill equipped for the digital environment means that migration to digital infrastructure is more difficult.”

As modernisation steps up apace, legacy technology will have to be replaced with advanced train-control and signalling systems such as ERTMS level 2 and above. In these technologies, wireless communications are used to supervise train movement. The systems currently used today use between 100 and 1,000 mechanical and electrical signal boxes, which would be replaced by new digital interlocking and control centres, of which only a few are required to control even the largest rail systems. It is hoped that the rollout of these technologies will allow railway operators to withdraw the majority of their trackside technology and that autonomous train operations will be built upon an electrified rail network.

Two studies, the first a joint study by the German Ministry of Transport and McKinsey and Company in 2018, the second a joint report by the European Commission, Ineco and EY in 2019, point to the following as the main benefits of rail electrification:

• Additional capacity: With many railways having been pushed to their limits by the increase in demand for train passenger spots, it is projected that the digitalisation of rail infrastructure will increase capacity by 20 per cent without the need for new tracks.
• Less expensive, more efficient services: It is expected that more than 90 per cent of signal boxes will be replaced by much less control centres and that lower costs of running will result in lower track access charges. The introduction of digital train control and traffic management will increase the rail system’s availability, reliability, and punctuality.
• Enhanced technological leadership: Automation and the harmonisation of standards across Europe and the rail network worldwide will provide opportunity for “substantial product innovation and the chance to conquer new markets”.
• Increased environmental sustainability: The smoother operations resultant from digitalisation, as well as the obvious lack of reliance on fossil fuels, will play a major role in the European transport system’s role in the decarbonisation targets set by the EU.
• The chance to futureproof the industry: It is only through the digitalisation of rail systems that train infrastructure can hope to compete with the transport industry of the future; “operators cannot hope to beat smart mobility platforms with 1920s signalling systems, 1940s level crossings, or 1960s interlocking systems”, McKinsey and Company say.

However, Europe’s rollout of next generation rail technology has not matched the pace of other markets. Luxembourg and Switzerland have migrated their train-control and traffic-management systems to ERTMS levels 1 and 2, while Spain has introduced ERTMS level 2 on many lines. Danish and Swiss rail system migration has suffered many setbacks, and progress in rolling out ERTMS in large markets such as France, Germany, and Italy has been limited.

Central rail-network operations, such as France’s Commande Centralisée de Réseau and Germany’s Digitaler Bedienplatz, have plans to update a portion of their interlockings, but the timeframes in which they expect to finish (2033 and 2035 respectively) are long-term. This slow pace in Europe has allowed for other markets to catch up from a research and development point of view; China, for example, is now responsible for more than 50 per cent of global high-speed trains. China is also now investing heavily in signalling technology and is expected to compete with Europe before long.

To this end, McKinsey and Company suggest three targets for European rail infrastructure to digitalise at a rate that sets it out in front of other markets by 2050:

• Every track and train should be capable of delivering at least ERTMS level 3, which means that more than 250,000km of lines and more than 50,000 vehicles would be equipped with new train-control and signalling systems.
• Train operations should be capable of achieving the highest possible grade of automation, level 4, which would enable an entire operation to exist without train drivers (and with appropriately equipped stations) on 100 per cent of high-speed trains and 30 per cent of local trains.
• Automated coupling and shunting should also be implemented in rail freight in all major shunting stations and yards and for 100 per cent of the rolling stock.