Hello everyone, I’m Leoci Francesca and I have been working in the railway  field (safety and signaling  systems)  for more than  18 years. I started as a designer for the Trackside Subsystem of the Italian security system  SCMT  (acronym of “Sistema  Controllo  Marcia  Treno”),  having developed a software that automatically generated the project documents,   and later as a System Engineer for the development of the SCMT   On-Board System.

When we talk about ERTMS we talk mainly about the following two systems:

• ETCS: is the train control standard. It is based on cabin equipment able to supervise the train movements  and to stop it according  to the speed  allowed in each section of the line.  The information on board is received from ETCS trackside equipment, Eurobalise or Radio, depending on the operating level being used.
• GSM-R: acronym of “Global System for Mobile Communications – Railways”. It is the radio system used for the bi- directional exchange of messages between the On-Board Subsystem and the Trackside Subsystem (RBC or RIU).

The first objective of the ERTMS/ETCS is to realize the railway Interoperability throughout Europe. This  means  that  a train made by any supplier and equipped with an ERTMS/ETCS On-Board subsystem can travel on lines equipped with ERTMS/ETCS made by other suppliers.

Interoperability in the railway field represents the critical concept for integrating the various European systems and its implementation  allows  a significant increase in performance in the transport sector.