Clive Kessell

Like many other countries, Norway has a problem with ageing signalling equipment and needs to undertake modernisation. The infrastructure manager, Jernbaneverket, has taken the decision to adopt ERTMS nationwide with a project lasting from the present day until 2030. It is only the second country to have taken this bold step...

Much has been written to explain the operation and benefits of Communications Based Train Control (CBTC). By default, such technology has become associated with modern metro operations around the world. Lines that employ CBTC enjoy a significant increase in train running capacity as well as achieving automatic train operation (ATO), automatic...

There have been many articles on ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) and its component elements of ETCS (European Train Control System) and GSM-R, the radio transmission link. Most have been upbeat, confidently predicting that this is the technology to adopt for future interoperability. A minority have alluded to the problems...

The Finnish Transport Agency (FTA) and Finnish Railways (VR Group) were one of the first to adopt the GSM-R standard for track-to-train radio based voice communication. They rolled out a nationwide network relatively quickly and duly equipped the train cabs. The system has worked well but is now over 10...

All too often, the UK rail scene is compared unfavourably with countries in continental Europe. But is this fair? Or even true?

The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) holds ...
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The post Rail Engineering: UK vs France appeared first on The Rail Engineer.

Cities that invested in the construction of a new metro system in recent years encountered both advantages and drawbacks compared to cities that built systems a hundred or so years ago. Metro systems of old still needed to dig tunnels in city centres but the disruption to everyday life did not have the constraints put [...]

Signalling technology and system engineering has moved on considerably over the past twenty odd years. However, it is still perceived by many as expensive and failing to keep up with technology advances that have emerged in other industries. Network Rail is mindful of this criticism and has created a Signalling Innovations Group to investigate how [...]

Much has been written on the deployment of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) Level 2 across Europe. Most of the more recent High Speed lines are equipped with the system (or more accurately the ETCS – European Train Control System plus GSM-R) where infrastructure and trains are more or less self contained and [...]

Anyone familiar with Boston in the USA ten years ago may know of the project to put the city’s overhead viaduct road system into tunnels. Known as the ‘Big Dig’, it became notorious because of its late running and huge overspend. Equally notorious has been the Bluebell Railway’s own Big Dig – to clear Imberhorne [...]

The Institution of Railway Signal Engineers (IRSE) celebrated its centenary in 2012. Although a body to represent this specialist branch of rail engineering had been in existence since 1891, formal recognition only arrived with the formation of the IRSE and its first meeting on 25 February 1913 at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham. By that [...]