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HIGH PERFORMANCE SIGNALLING | Doc Frank Heibel
Secrets to China’s Signalling Success – Part 1: Mainline Railways
Disclaimer: Any individual or business decision you may make based on the content of this article is solely and fully your own responsibility, and you cannot under any circumstance hold me, my business, or the publisher of this newsletter responsible for any consequences of such decisions.
China is hands down one of the most fascinating railway signalling markets in the world, if not the most second to none. For the sake of signalling developments in other countries it makes sense to look at what makes China’s signalling developments so successful. And maybe some lessons can be learned how to improve signalling strategies in the ‘western’ world.
I should say that this article, and the following parts on Chinese signalling, is an opinion piece rather than a forensic analysis. Information from China, particularly about market strategies, is very hard to come by, especially from abroad. Therefore, this article series aims to use available information in the public domain together with observations of market developments, in order to “connect the dots” to derive strategic intentions and tactical measures that are not publicly documented.
In this newsletter, we already made the distinction between ‘mainline’ and ‘metro’ (or ‘urban’) railways. Those two types of railways, mainline connecting cities and metro/urban servicing a single city, have quite different operational requirements which translates into different technologies for advanced signalling. The European Train Control System (ETCS) is the world’s most popular technology for mainline railways, while Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) is most popular for signalling metro/urban railways with usually higher capacity demands than mainline railways.
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High Performance Signalling
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HIGH PERFORMANCE SIGNALLING | Monthly Articles

Ask Doc Frank Heibel
Articles by Doc Frank Heibel
What is High Performance Signalling?
First of all, welcome dear reader to my column about “High Performance Signalling”. I hope you find these articles insightful and instructive and will do my best to give you premium “food for thought” as well as practical and applicable advice. Yet it is prudent to add this…
So what do I mean by High Performance Signalling? And why do I think that CBTC provides that more than ETCS or any other mainstream signalling technology?
I coined that term High Performance Signalling around 2016 because I thought, and still think, that the popular (at least here in Australia) term High Capacity Signalling…
ask the doc | doc frank heibel
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