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Showing posts with label Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Show all posts

Monday, 7 March 2016

18:31

204 Rail Accidents due to Failure of Staff: Report

204 Rail Accidents due to Failure of Staff: Report

New Delhi: Over 200 rail accidents out of the total 292 were caused due to failure of railway staff in the last few years with action being taken against 542 employees and penalties imposed in over 500 cases.

As per the findings of inquiry committees including prima-facie causes, out of a total of 292 consequential train accidents, excluding mishaps which occurred at unmanned level crossings, from 2012-13 to January 2016, 204 accidents have been attributed to failure of railway staff, according to Railway Ministry data.

Admitting negligence of railway staff as one of the causes behind many train accidents, a senior Railway Ministry official said, “All consequential train accidents are investigated by Commissioner Railway Safety (CRS). On the basis of these inquiry reports, disciplinary action is taken against the staff found guilty and penalties are imposed on the staff.”

A total of 542 employees have been taken up for disciplinary action and penalties imposed in 528 cases.

The official said safety is accorded the highest priority by railways and all possible steps are undertaken on a continual basis to prevent accidents and to enhance safety.

These include replacement of over-aged assets, adoption of suitable technologies for upgradation and maintenance of track, rolling stock, signalling and interlocking systems and safety drives among others.

He said railways has also adopted new technologies such as train protection warning system (TPWS), train collision avoidance system (TCAS) as a means of automatic train protection on pilot-basis on selected routes.

Source: RailNews
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Thursday, 10 December 2015

06:47

Indian Railways to introduce Advanced Train Collision Avoidance System in the next Rail Budget

Indian Railways to introduce Advanced Train Collision Avoidance System in the next Rail Budget

New Delhi: After more than two decades of wait and years of trial on indigenous developed collision warning system, Indian railway is all set to introduce world’s most advanced Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) on the world’s third largest rail network covering 66,000km route.

The system is expected to be formally introduced post March month between New Delhi to Mughalsarai and New Delhi to Jhansi.

“The success of Indian engineered technology will be reflected in coming rail budget and it will be laid down on tracks boosting the PM Modi ‘Make in India’ initiative, ” said a senior official at Railway Board, who further said “recently we received a successful report of pilot project undertook by South Central Railway in Secunderabad division on 250 km long track, which has paved the way for series of introduction of system across country, now it was upto railway board as how much fund they want to allocate to implement it on tracks.”

“TCAS developed by RDSO (Research Designs and Standards Organisation) is combination of earlier truncated version of Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) and latest European Train Control System level II (ETCS-II). The technology could pave the way for driver-less train operation in future and is most advanced among all the available system across world,” he said.

“TCAS can tab signals up to a distance of three km and intimate the loco pilot about the status of enroute signals, station and other trains in the area on the dash board monitor, which means that loco pilot would no longer need to look outside in foggy weather conditions or in night,” he claimed.

TCAS is based on a combination of railway signaling data with radio communications, global position, radio frequency identification devices, software and logic.

He further added, “The system is cheapest in world merely Rs 10 lakh per km to implement, and is expected to be introduced on trunk route for Indian railways in program manner.”
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Sunday, 30 August 2015

10:34

“Zero Accident Mission” - Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu

“Zero Accident Mission” - Railway Minister Shri Suresh Prabhu

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu addresses valedictory session of International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” 

Two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” concluded today. Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu addressed the valedictory session. It was organized by Institution of Railway Signal and Telecommunication Engineers (IRSTE), (India) and Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), (Indian Section) in association with Indian Railways. 

The conference was yesterday opened by a keynote speech by the Chairman of the Railway Board, Shri A.K.Mittal and Member Electrical Shri Naveen Tandon. The event was also attended by Addl. Member (Signal), Shri S. Manohar, Addl. Member Telecom, Shri K.S.Krishna Kumar, Hon. Secretary IRSTE & CAO/IRPMU Shri Kundan Choudhary and other dignitaries. 

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that main thrust of any transport organisation should be on safe and secure transportation with zero scope of accidents. Indian Railways need to launch “Zero Accident Mission”. This requires integrated approach involving use of cost effective advanced technology and properly trained manpower. He further said that new advances in command, control and communication system can play a very vital role in evolving safe and secure operation environment on Indian Railways where there should be no scope of accidents even in case of human errors. 

Hon’ble Minister laid emphasis on development of suitable technology to control accidents at unmanned level crossings by providing suitable indications about approaching trains and any obstruction on track. He pointed out that in such conferences we should focus on Global Bench marks and assess our standing as compared to Global standards. We should try to develop indigenous cost effective system having global standards suitable for Indian Railways. He requested to foreign delegates and companies to come, collaborate and manufacture in India. India has advantage of skilled man power, big market and large manufacturing base. In addition to internal consumptions such manufacturing hubs should have export potential. 

At the end Hon’ble Minister said that Indian Railways “Zero Accident Mission” should have a definite time frame 

Railway Signalling & Telecommunication Engineering comprises of a whole range of technologies to provide cost effective solutions in enhancing Safety and Line Capacity as well as disseminating train running information to passengers so as to make their journey safe, comfortable and convenient. Indian Railways under the modernization plan for Signaling and Telecom assets have adopted modern S&T solutions like Centralized Operation of Signalling system, Electronic Interlocking, LED signals, Block Proving by Axle Counters. Throughput enhancement has been achieved by providing Automatic Block Signalling and IBS (Intermediate Block Signalling) on high density routes. To prevent the incidences of Signal Passing at Danger (SPAD) and Over-speeding, Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) based on based on European Train Control System (ETCS L-1) has been successfully implemented as Pilot projects on select corridors and further implementation on suburban sections with dense traffic movement has been planned. Indian Railways is also in the process of indigenously developing Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) as a cost effective solution for automatic train protection. 

The Conference gave the opportunity to the participants, Signalling and Telecommunication professionals as well as representatives from the industrial and research sectors, such as Efftronics, RTVision, Railel, Huawei, TechnoSatComm, Siemens, Thales, Hitachi, Frauscher, EMC etc from various countries to benefit from an open, relevant and comprehensive information exchange on the state-of-the-art, technologies, needs and requirements, as well as the vision of future systems. 

The two days of the Convention, led by around 20 renowned speakers debated subjects such as: 

•Signalling Trends on Main Line and Metros- Opportunities for Make in India 

•Modern Control, Command and Communication technologies for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Systems 

•Advance Automatic Train Protection technologies like ETCS, CBTC 

•High Availability Systems and Smart Signalling Systems 

•Centralized Traffic Control System on Indian Railways 

•Challenges in adoption of Electronic Interlocking in Indian Railways and their possible solutions 

•Train Management System on Indian Railway 

•Signalling on Kolkata Metro 

•Modern Railway Communication and Ensuring Safety in Communication 

• Empowering through Knowledge and Skill Development 

The conclusions and outputs during the Convention provided the Railway Train Control, Command and Communication domains with a clear vision on the challenges ahead to meet the need for enhanced Safety, Reliability and Line Capacity, the technologies available world-wide and the need for empowerment through knowledge and skill development. 
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Saturday, 29 August 2015

07:53

Indian Railways is facing line-capacity constraint on many sections -Chairman of the Railway Board

CRB stresses for Zero Tolerance to Signaling Failures on Indian Railways

Expressing serious concerns over the number of accidents involving trains, Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mital today called for zero failure in signalling systems at the Two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems”

New Delhi: Expressing concern over the number of accidents involving trains, Chairman, Railway Board, AK Mital today called for zero failure in signalling systems in the two day International Railway Convention on “Advances in Command, Control and Communication Systems for Main Line, Metro and High Speed Transit Systems” that began today, organised by Institution of Railway Signal and Telecommunication Engineers (IRSTE), (India) and Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE), (Indian Section) in association with Indian Railways.

The conference was opened by a keynote speech by the Chairman of the Railway Board, Shri A.K.Mittal and Member Electrical Shri Naveen Tandon. The event was also attended by Addl. Member (Signal), Shri S.Manohar, Addl. Member Telecom, Shri K.S.Krishna Kumar, Hon. Secretary IRSTE & CAO/IRPMU Shri Kundan Choudhary and other dignitaries.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Railway Board Shri A. K. Mital said that Signaling & Telecom constitute the brain-power and software for railway system. Safety and orderly movement of traffic is critically dependent on the type and reliability of the signaling and telecom equipment. Indian Railways has over the years vastly modernized its signaling and telecom systems by extensive use of electronic interlocking, OFCs, Colour Light Signals and Automatic signals. Railways today deploy the state-of-the-art signaling suited for our system of working. We have installed modern Electronic interlocking at more than 5000 stations and almost eliminated end-cabins. Communication system which is the backbone of the train operation is mostly an extensive network of OFCs. We have set up a specialized company, RailTel, which not only meets all the in-house requirements of the Railways but also has ventured into the adjacent areas in Telecommunications and carved out a reputation for itself. S&T inputs have helped us to optimize capacity utilization in a mixed traffic environment where different kinds of passenger and goods trains with different speed and operating characteristic run.However, we still have a long way to go in achieving zero failure in equipment and in migrating to a system which eliminates human error altogether as in the case of advanced railway systems in the world. In future, we have to think of centralized traffic control, cab-signaling and ATP (Automatic Train Protection). All these technologies are available but we cannot simply take and transplant them on Indian Railways. A lot of work is needed to tailor and customize the technologies to our requirement and to make them sturdy and robust under Indian conditions.

Stating that more than 60 per cent of total accidents in Railways occur at unmanned level crossings, Mital asked the Signalling and Telecommunication (S&T) wing to come up with low cost but highly effective solutions to the problems.

“There are more than 60 per cent of total accidents in railways occurring at unmanned level crossings almost every 48 hours.  S&T department should work out low cost solution to the problems,” he said at a seminar here.

Criticising signal failure incidents, he said, “There are about 100 signal failures of our lakhs of signalling daily. Though failure is minimum, it is not acceptable. It has to be zero-failure signalling system. We have to have a system which is free from failures.”

“Today we are fully depending on loco pilot for safety. If the driver blinks for a moment, then there should be a technology to support him,” he said.

Mital also expressed concerns over the slow pace of installation of train collision avoidance system (TCAS), and stressed on the need to expedite it to curb mishaps.

“TCAS trial is going on for the last three years,. Now time has come to complete the trial on the 250 km section in one year,” he said.

TCAS is indigenously developed by Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) and its trial is going on in Delhi-Agra section and Chennai suburban route.

Mital said that our Signaling & Telecom team has done pioneering work by developing a Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). This can potentially achieve all the functions of ATP in the Absolute Block Signaling territory at a fraction of the cost. He called upon to expedite the field trails and take early measures to adopt it for the benefit of Railways.

Mital hoped that today’s convention would provide our officers a platform to share their experience and expertise and also learn from a similar good work done by their counterparts from other railway systems.

In his address Member Electrical Railway Board Shri Navin Tandon said that Indian Railways is having a determined vision to modernize its infrastructure by induction of state-of-art and user friendly technologies, with a view to bring in radical improvements in line capacity, safety and efficiency.

Signalling & Telecommunication Engineering provides for a whole range of technologies to provide cost effective solutions in enhancing Safety and Line Capacity and disseminating train running. While we have initiated steps for installation of fire alarm systems, it is high time to use Fire Suppression system in future to avoid repetition of such cases. I would also request experts attending to deliberate and find effective steps and methodology not only for preventing, detecting and suppressing the fire hazards but also on strategies so as to have faster recoveries God forbid if such incidence occur again. Indian Railways under the modernization plan for signaling and telecom assets have adopted modern S&T solutions like centralized operation of signaling system, Block Proving by Axle Counters etc. Throughput enhancement has been achieved by providing Automatic Block Signalling and IBS on high density routes. This has resulted into increased safety and line capacity.

Indian Railways is facing line-capacity constraint on many sections. Hence, we have to find new solutions to create additional line capacity on urgent basis. This conference will deliberate on Advances in Command, Control and Communication systems for Main Line.

Metro and High Speed Transit systems with the main objective to increase capacity by safely reducing the headway between the trains. With these kind of systems, the position of a train is accurately known and thus it results in more efficient and safe utilization of assets.

However, these systems make use of open standards for wireless digital communications which can be subject to various types of hacking including intrusion in the communication network and tampering with safety critical message which in the worst case can result into a safety hazard. Suitable techniques for securing open networks must be carefully analyzed and adequate controls must be implemented to protect the system from such malicious attacks.
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Tuesday, 9 June 2015

07:55

Automatic Train Protection System ATP -Project of Indian Railways

The trials of Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) system, also called as Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System, an indigenous “Make in India” Project of Indian Railways was carried out today i.e., 6thJune, 2015 between Lingampalli-Vikarabad-Tandur-Koukuntla Railway Stations o­n the Begumpet - Wadi Section of Secunderabad Division of South Central Railway. Shri Naveen Tandon, Member Electrical, Railway Board, New Delhi examined the trials. The TCAS, developed indigenously by Research Designs & Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow is being extended infrastructural support by South Central Railway.

Shri Ashesh Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, Secunderabad Division, Shri M.S.Mahaboob Ali, Chief Signal & Telecommunications Engineer, Shri Solan Gupta, Chief Electrical Engineer and Shri Manohar, Additional Member, Signaling, Railway Board accompanied the Member Electrical, Railway Board.

This Automatic Train Protection System, which is economical as compared to the Technology in Developed Countries, was put on trial, as a continuing measure to the trials carried out earlier in the same section. The TCAS trials were broadly categorized into three segments - between Godamgura and Tandur, it was a maiden trial of the new installation of TCAS while between Tandur and Koukuntla, the TCAS trials were meant to further ensure Inter Operability with three firms viz., Medha, Kernex and HBL which are involved in the project. Between Lingampalli and Hafizpet, the maiden trials were carried out to check suitability of TCAS on auto signaling section.

The ambitious TCAS project is being further planned for full fledged extended trials in the next few months by undertaking work o­n required infrastructural inputs including Tower Foundations, Equipment installations etc. The full fledged trials will cover Lingampalli – Vikarabad – Wadi and Vikarabad – Bidar sections to a total length of 250 kms. 40 nominated Locomotives (20 Electrical and 20 Diesel Locomotives) will be put to use for these full fledged trials.

Shri Bhamu, Executive Director, Signal Development, Railway Board,  Shri L.K.Mansukhani, Director, RDSO, Shri B. Srinivasulu., Director, (Q&A), Railway Board, Shri Kalyan Raju, Sr. Divisional Signal and Telecommunications Engineer, Shri Koteswar Rao, Sr. Divisional Electrical Engineer, Secunderabad Division, SCR were amongst those present.

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Wednesday, 29 April 2015

20:09

Train Protection Warning System to be extended


Train Protection Warning System to be extended

Madurai (MDU): Train Protection Warning System, a system to prevent accidents owing to human error by way of not following the signals, already installed in the Chennai-Central-Gummudipoondi section will be extended to the Arakkonam and Chengalpattu sections, Southern Railway Chief Signal and Telecommunications Engineer A.V. Sivaprasad said.

Works for the installation of the system is under way, Mr. Sivaprasad, who was here to distribute awards to the employees of his department, told on Tuesday.

Stating that the system, now working in Gummudipoondi section, is well appreciated by the loco-pilots, Mr. Sivaprasad said it would automatically bring the running trains to a halt whenever the loco-pilots fail to acknowledge the signal.

No accident

The reliability of railway signalling system has improved so much in the last one year that no accident was reported owing to the failure of signals in the entire country, he said. As part of the measures to prevent accidents at unmanned level-crossings, a total of 191 level-crossings in the Southern Railway would be provided with interlocking signals during the current financial year.

The Indian Railway is now installing sophisticated electronic interlocking signalling systems that would further ensure reliability. The electro-mechanical signals being used are imported from Austria and Germany, whereas the advanced system is indigenous.

“The electronic interlocking system is being installed in 10 railway stations in the Tiruchi-Dindigul section where doubling work is under way,” Mr. Sivaprasad said.
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Tuesday, 9 December 2014

06:46

1381 Fog Safe Devices are Under Trial on Indian Railways

1381 Fog Safe Devices are Under Trial on Indian Railways 

Technological options are being pursues by Indian Railways for prevention of accidents during conditions of poor visibility by installing notably Fog Safe Device, which is a Global Positioning System (GPS) based device installed to assist the Loco Pilot during poor visibility condition. Currently, a total of 1381 Fog Safe Devices are under trial on Northern, North Eastern and North Western Railways in fog prone areas. In addition, Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS), Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) are also under various stages of trial. 

Guidelines are already in place instructing Zonal Railways to take action during foggy season to deal with train operations as under:- 

i)To provide safeguard in train operation in Automatic Block System during foggy weather by restricting the number of trains to two between two stations. 

ii)Reduce the speed of train. 

iii)Deputing additional staff to alert the Loco Pilot through placement of detonators before the First Stop signal. 

iv)Improving the visibility of signals. 

v)Loco Pilot to take precautions, be vigilant and alert and to observe Special Rules and instructions regarding speed limits under foggy conditions. 

Indian Railways have decided to cancel 27 pairs of train services between 31.12.2014 and 15.2.2015 to ensure smooth operation of trains and safety of passengers during foggy condition. 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today. 

AKS/HK/KD/RV 
(Release ID :112808)
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