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| Atkins to deliver Europe’s most advanced rail upgrade UK-based architecture and engineering firm Atkins is helping to deliver the most important combined upgrade in passenger and freight train services in Europe, which is underway in Denmark. The ERTMS project promises an improvement in safety, performance, and capacity, and opens up the possibility of running non-stop trains across all borders. The joint venture project partners are Atkins as an equal majority shareholder with Danish engineer's Ramboll. The joint venture also includes Parsons, and Emch+Berger AG Switzerland. ERTMS, European Rail Traffic Management System, will see on-board computers fitted to every train, which receive and relay information via trackside radio beacons that communicate with a central control. This improves timetable reliability and offers capacity improvements because services can be run closer together. Safety is also a key feature because ERTMS also includes an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system which applies a train's brakes automatically if it is in danger of a potential collision. The UK's Department for Transport has already published its plans to fit ERTMS with the expectation that the Great Western mainline will be up and running first by around 2025. The intention is to eventually see ERTMS universally fitted across Europe opening up the potential for trains to run non-stop across all borders. As well as the boost to passenger services the freight industry could also see huge benefits. At the moment the average speed between European cities is around 20kph because freight has to be off-loaded at every border and transferred on to another train equipped to run on the next country's network. In future if both countries had ERTMS fitted that would not be an issue, so freight deliveries could be far cheaper, and faster. Crucially it would also cut the carbon footprint of freight services and encourage more business from the road network. The Danish project will deliver ERTMS on 3200 km of track on its strategic rail network for around £2.9 billion. In UK terms that would pay for enough track to stretch from London to Glasgow fives times, or cover a quarter of the entire electrified rail network. The upgrade is being applied with expansion in mind, particularly looking at interoperability with the Swedish and German networks. write your comments about the article :: © 2009 Construction News :: home page |