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Achieving interoperability in the signalling sector is one of the major tasks of the railway industry in the coming years. It is the pre-condition to achieve a complete interoperability of railways across Europe. The initiatives started by the European Commission and the signalling industries have opened the way to reach that goal.
The establishment of a new signalling system, ERTMS, the European Rail Traffic Management System, of which the commercial implementation will start this year, is the concrete result of this work. The companies that are actually producing the different ERTMS systems are therefore closely co-operating to ensure that their products remain compatible in the UNISIG group.
As these companies are all members of UNIFE, UNIFE is maintaining the ERTMS website and diffusing information about this new standard, the European Commission’s research programs concerning ERTMS and the results of the tests being conducted in various countries.
In that respect, one of the main tools which will be used by UNIFE is a new newsletter about Signalling, Infrastructure and GSM-R which will aim at distributing relevant information among all the actors concerned by this new standard. It will be published twice each year, beginning in June 2001.
This new European signalling system also interests non-European countries, as in particular India has plans to equip some of its railway network with ERTMS, and that companies from the United States and South Africa are closely following the results of the first European tests. ERTMS will therefore provide UNISIG and UNIFE members with new commercial opportunities.
Contact
Danilo Alba, UNISIG International Manager
Email danilo.alba@unife.org
Tel: +32 2 643 70 82
Fax: +32 2 626 12 61
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