Well, first of all, thanks for inviting me. I have been working in the rail sector for over 13 years. I started in the operational unit department at ADIF, the Spanish infrastructure manager, where we dealt with planning, train management and passenger information systems. After 7 years I had the tremendous opportunity to move to Brussels to the ERTMS Users Group, where I spent 5 years. There, thanks to the atmosphere and the great professionals I found that have become friends, I learnt a lot and contributed as much as I could to the development of ERTMS.

Nowadays I work for the European Union Agency for Railways in the ERTMS unit. There, as ERTMS System Authority we monitor and regulate the evolution of the system, the deployment and all the tasks to which the Agency has a mandate from the European Commission.

How does the TSI CCS play a crucial role in harmonizing signaling and control- command systems across European railways? Could you highlight some key technical specifications and standards outlined in the new TSI CCS?

Railways have a lot of history, and that’s something great, but it also comes with some drawbacks. Each country/region has developed a different way or even different infrastructure to use the railways. This has created a very heterogeneous ecosystem that is against the commitment of the European Union to harmonize and create a single space for mobility. Hence, we are mandated to improve the INTEROPERABILITY. And what is this? Well, basically, we must be able to travel, as if we were on a car, from Lisbon to Prague without any kind of obstacles. ERTMS is just a part of this big challenge, it is the European standard for the control, command and signalling system, simplifying it a lot (the signals and traffic lights for trains).

It was started quite long ago, and as everything, it has also evolved, several baselines, have been published, and we are proud of this latest release, baseline 4 that was published last September. As a teaser, this new release includes Automatic Train Operation (ATO) and a new Communication System.

Regarding deployment and implementation, what do you consider to be major challenges that railway operators and infrastructure managers would face when transitioning to new TSI CCS requirements? How can these challenges be addressed effectively?

The main challenge, from my personal point of view, is the co-living.
Trains are already running, and the deployment of a new signalling system is not “plug-and-play”. For example, believe it or not, a lot of people in the sector think that updating the ERTMS version is done in just a few mouse clicks, and it is not like that, it requires a lot of management, and compromise from all the affected parts (railway undertakings, equipment providers, infrastructure managers) and experts. Putting everything together requires a great effort and capacity of understanding.

Considering your extensive experience, what recommendations would you give to countries or regions adopting ERTMS/ETCS for their railway networks?

They need to be convinced, or better, they need to convince themselves that it is a stake in the future that will foster the goods distribution, make mobility more sustainable and effective, and directly impact the well-being of citizens and companies.

We all know it is costly, and that it requires a considerable effort, but the results, at the end of the day, are incredibly good.

Cybersecurity is a growing concern in the railway industry, especially with the increasing digitalization of control and signaling systems. How are ETCS and TSI CCS addressing cybersecurity threats, and what measures are being taken to ensure the integrity and security of these systems?

Cybersecurity is indeed a trending topic that needs to be addressed at all levels, from the final user passing by the application layer to the communication channel.
We, as a sector, or even as the whole European Union should not deal with cybersecurity in small groups, cybersecurity must be treated as a transversal problem, from mobility to personal data.

The ERA is in close collaboration with ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) to analyze the cybersecurity problems affecting the railways and designing strategies to improve our defense against this way of disrupting the service.

If we talk about ERTMS, the cybersecurity is based on a cyphered way of exchanging information among the different actors (trains and trackside networks).

David, thank you so much for sharing your insights and expertise on ERTMS/ETCS and TSI CCS. It’s been a pleasure talking with you.

Thank you Ivan for contributing to the dissemination of ERTMS across Europe.