ERTMS in Norway – Experiences from half a year of operation

Some of the lessons learned

When moving from legacy signalling to a communication-based digital signalling system, such as ERTMS, there are numerous challenges and numerous learning points. Not only is more accurate data needed, but operationally, the system is also quite different from legacy signalling.

Infrastructure data
Due to the pilot line, we saw that our infrastructure data did not have the required quality needed for ERTMS L2. This resulted in re-measuring the complete railway network to get the required data quality. When moving to such a system, data must be correct, but it is also important to understand how you need to further maintain this data. Understand the supplier’s need for data and transfer of it in a “standardised” format (e.g., RailML) is also required.

Engineering
Engineering of ERTMS must be considered related to the sharing of responsibilities between the Infrastructure Manager (IM) and suppliers (this might differ between IMs). Bane NOR has decided to take the responsibility for information related to infrastructure data for train operations, such as schematic plans, interlocking parameters, speed and gradient profiles. The supplier is responsible for the engineering of the system based on the above input data from Bane NOR.
Our engineering personnel have had to change their mindset from connecting relay contacts to “where should the Marker Board be placed, and why”. We had to make new engineering guidelines to support the engineering of ERTMS.

System supervision
Using both our fibre optic and mobile communication systems to operate ERTMS, therefore ERTMS has to be considered as a system closely integrated with the communication systems. Bane NOR has set up a new National Operation Centre to supervise both ERTMS and communication systems. With ERTMS as a new communication-based system, security is a new issue that must be taken into consideration, also related to system supervision.

Training
With the transfer to ERTMS, a huge amount of personnel need to be trained at different levels, such as train drivers, dispatchers/signallers, signalling engineers, signalling technicians, OAM, security, and Management.
The amount of training needed resulted in Bane NOR building a new training facility to support the training and experience exchange for ERTMS.

Testing
New signalling systems need testing, both related to generic and specific applications. Test of a generic application will typically follow development stages at the start of a project, while test of a specific application will follow the rollout of the signalling systems (or specific changes to it). In addition to the above, which can mainly be performed in a test lab, tests including train runs (dynamic tests) will also be needed.
Bane NOR has established one of Europe’s most advanced test centres in what is named Campus Nyland, a little outside Oslo City Centre. While testing of generic applications will have a somewhat limited duration, the test centre will be heavily used for testing specific application changes.