LOCOPROL website

Existing command-control systems adapted for medium traffic density lines or the future ERTMS/ETCS system dedicated to high speed and/or high-density traffic railway lines remain too expensive to allow their use on railway lines with low and very low traffic density. As a consequence, many Low Density Traffic Lines (LDTL) in the enlarged EU, US and developing countries are still equipped with over-aged and dangerous human-based safety equipment with high maintenance costs - keeping the capacity of these lines to a very low threshold.

In this context, there is a need for the development of an innovative and cost effective system for Low Density Traffic Lines (LDTL) based on new available technologies such as satellite location. The aim is to offer the same level of safety than on high-density lines and enhance the efficiency of these lines in order for rail transport to become more attractive.

Objectives

The LOCOPROL project intends to develop an innovative cost-effective satellite-based vital fail-safe train location system as the core of a train protection, control and command system.

The proposed innovations will achieve a significant reduction of the costs aiming to short term applications for low density traffic railway lines.

The four main objectives of the project are strongly interconnected:

• define a new multi-technology location system
• study and prove its applicability in LDTL lines
• study its application to ERTMS/ETCS
• study and prove its application for workers protection

Approach

Innovation

The major innovation of the LOCOPROL project consists in the development of a low-cost fail-safe satellite positioning system in which additional sensors and Kalman filter are no longer mandatory.

Some correlated developments will carried out allowing its integration in a positive train control system for LDTL to be tested:

• an innovative distribution of functions concentrating more intelligence on-board (e.g. some interlocking functions) enhancing the autonomy of the train
• a fail-safe workers terminal allowing for the increased security of workers on the track
• a train integrity sub-system based on dialogue with ground equipment
• an interface to end users allowing the follow-up of the transported goods and passenger information.

The proposed innovations will achieve a significant reduction of the costs (acquisition, maintenance and operation), aiming for short-term applications for low-density traffic railway lines without any service limitation to final users by:

• suppression of most track equipment (only points and level crossing equipment)
• avoidance of the need for additional an expensive on-board odometer requiring sensors exposed to damage (satellite positioning only)
• elimination of fail-safe equipment in the central equipment (only non- safe functions such as traffic control and supervision are kept centralised)
• optimal reduction both in quantity and time of the radio communications  for vital and non-vital information
• possible operation of ERTMS train on the LOCOPROL-equipped lines.

Fail-safe satellite positioning

The new concept used for the LOCOPROL location system is based on the simultaneous use of information primarily supplied by the following three sub-systems:

• fail-safe track mapping (giving two equations to define a line segment)
• fail-safe interlocking functions (linking the line segments in one complete line)
• satellite positioning (locating the train on the complete line)

This information is then processed to achieve a fail-safe satellite positioning. The location is achieved in a completely different way from the classical methods.

The position calculation is achieved by directly using the signal untreated transmitted by the satellites themselves and not the co-ordinates of the train after internal computation, but the distance between train and satellite.

Consortium

The figure below illustrates the composition of the consortium in term of skills, and shows how it is well-balanced between industry, railways and research centres. In addition, the consortium includes industry companies with competences in the various domains of expertise required by the project.

 

 

CONSORTIUM MEMBERS

ALSTOM Belgium SA

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INRETS
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Honeywell Regelsysteme GmbH
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ALSTOM Transport S.p.A. (ALSTOM STL)
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TRASYS SA
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Beratung und Planung im Verkehrswesen 
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Reseau Ferre de France 

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NMBS-SNCB
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Northern Jiaotong University - NJTU 
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ERTICO
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SEPTENTRIO NV
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CFTA Connex

Public Documents

NEWS
LOCOPROL Nice Conference Flyer - 25 and 26 January 2005	Locoprol_Flyer_070105.pdf (848 KB)
LOCOPROL Chinese Conference Flyer 23 November 2004	LOCOPROL_China_Event_Leaflet_final.pdf (169 KB)
LOCOPROL Newsletter no. 5 - September 2004	loco_nl5.pdf (163 KB)
LOCOPROL Newsletter no. 4 - February 2004	nl4_0204.pdf (347 KB)
LOCOPROL Newsletter no. 3 - June 2003	newslet3.pdf (197 KB)
LOCOPROL Newsletter no. 2 - October 2002	newslet2.pdf (230 KB)
LOCOPROL Newsletter no. 1 - May 2002	newslet1.pdf (715 KB)
OTHER DOCUMENTS
Presentations from LOCOPROL Nice Conference - 25 and 26 January 2005	locoprol_demo_nice_2005.zip (7610 KB)
"GNSS-based Fail-safe Train Positioning System for Low-Density Traffic Lines Based on One-Dimensional Positioning Algorithm" - Andrew Simsky, Frank Wilms, Jean-Pierre Franckart, Presentation for NAVITEC 2004 workshop at ESTEC/Noordwijk, The Netherlands - 8 December 2004.	NAVITEC2004_paper_v1.0.pdf (1236 KB)
Presentations from Gembloux, Belgium demo - March 2004	Presentations_from_Gembloux_demo_March_2004.zip (5124 KB)
Safer train circulation with EGNOS - Dominique Detain, ESA
"Analysis of Satellite Availability for Satellite-Based Train Control Command Application to the LOCOPROL Project" - Juliette Marais and Marion Berbineau, Presentation for ERRI Conference - Paris, France, January 2004	preserri.pdf (882 KB)
"A New Satellite-Based Fail-Safe Train Control and Command for Low Density Railway Lines" - Juliette Marais, Marion Berbineau, Olivier Frimat and Jean-Pierre Franckart, Article for TILT - Lille, France, December 2003	arttilt.pdf (139 KB)
"Un nouveau système satellitaire de contrôle commande ferroviaire pour lignes a faible densité de trafic" - Juliette Marais,  Présentation for TILT - Lille, France, December 2003	prestilt.pdf (485 KB)
"A Low-Cost Train Location and Signalling System for “Low Density” Lines" - Pierre Mertens, Jean-Pierre Franckart, Antonin Starck (ALSTOM BSI) - WCRR 2003	wcrr03v3.pdf (137 KB)
"Integrity Equations for Safe Train Positioning using GNSS" - I. Nikiforov (UTT) & F. Choquette (ALSTOM BSI) - GNSS 2003 Conference	gnss_03.pdf (245 KB)
"EGNOS trials on Italian high-speed tilting trains" - F. Choquette (ALSTOM BSI) - GNSS 2003 Conference	ital_v11.pdf (874 KB)
Article - Railway Gazette International - August 2003 (Reproduced with permission from the Editor of Railway Gazette International, and remains the copyright of the magazine)	rgi_0803.pdf (57 KB)
LOCOPROL/ live demonstration - Information sheet	demoinfo.pdf (1102 KB)
D2.2 Former Projects Analysis	d2_2.pdf (797 KB)
D2.1 User Needs Analysis	d2_1.pdf (484 KB)
LOCOPROL brochure - January 2002	brochure.pdf (272 KB)
Project presentation	presenta.pdf (173 KB)

 

Public deliverables
D2.2 Former Projects sis	d2_2.pdf (797 KB)
D2.1 User Needs Analysis	d2_1.pdf (484 KB)
D1.1 Final Report	D 1.1 Final report_ (1761 KB)
D1.2 Project Presentation	D 1.2 Project Presentation (173 KB)
D3.5.1 Final System Specifications	D 3.5.1_Final System Specifications(807 KB)
D3.5.2 Recommendation for ERTMS adaptations	D 3.5.2 Recommendation for ERTMS adaptations (167 KB)
D5.1 System Safety Report	D 5.1 System Safety Report (439 KB)
D6.1 Evaluation Plan	D 6.1 Evaluation Plan (5667 KB)
D6.2 Compiled Evaluation Results	D 6.2 Compiled Evaluation Results (194 KB)
D7.2 Project Brochure	D 7.2 Project Brochure.pdf (272 KB)
D7.3 Information Conference	D 7.3 Information Conference(4713 KB)
D7.4 Technology Implementation Plan	D 7.4 Technology Implementation Plan(1123 KB)

 

Milestones

Early 2002	User needs defined
Fall 2002	System defined
Mid 2003	System modules available
End 2003	Tests completed
Mid 2004	Final specifications available