The new generation technologies promoted by railway manufacturers encourage the desire of transport operators to innovate and to raise their standards when organizing tenders for the acquisition of new equipment. The differences are, most of the time, almost invisible between large European manufacturers such as Alstom, Siemens or Bombardier who, in the last few years, managed to stand out due to the innovative projects that they launched on the market.
The large French manufacturer Alstom is currently studying new technologies in the high-speed segment. The main actor is the AGV (fr. – automatrice à grande vitesse), which is different from the TGV, mainly because of the traction load division system of every rail car. It’s no wonder that the constant speed of the new vehicles will be around 550 km/h.
If we were to compare the two vehicles, the TGV, which is considered to be the fastest train in the world, earned its position due to the powerful engine, with flexible articulations, which eliminate the risk of passenger injuries in case of derailment. Another major factor was the video surveillance equipment installed in the control cabin. SNCF is currently operating approximately 400 TGVs.
Asynchronous engines
…far ahead other European countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, who don’t even have a proper infrastructure to support high-speed trains. This fact is very well known by Softronic, a Romanian locomotive manufacturer, which has launched an asynchronous engine. Ion Gîrniță, General Manager Softronic, said that they rely mostly on the foreign market and that they are currently negotiating with companies from the Northern countries. What is so special about this locomotive? Suggestively called ‘Transmontana’, this locomotive has six AC asynchronous engines, with a superior traction force. “When talking about technologies related to capacity and speed, we mainly refer to the new AC technologies and modifying traction while increasing the engines. CC engines can go 1,500 rotations, while AC engines can go 3,000 rotations”, said Ion Gîrniță. According to him, speed is modified based on the number of rotations. So, when using an asynchronous engine, the speed exceeds 1,500 rotations.
In the last two years, Softronic managed to sell two high-speed locomotives to CFR Călători. “When acquiring the necessary equipment, referring of course to safety technologies designed to increase capacity and speed, the technical characteristics are established based on the functional requirements and the role that the respective equipment has to fill in within the system”, say CFR Călători officials.
Therefore, they base their decision on the safety level which they have to provide, whether it is necessary to have information encryption and decryption, whether they have to ensure antivirus scanning or antiX scanning (traffic scanning for unauthorized entry). Last but not least, they have to take into account the bandwidth allocated for data transmission, based on which the speed and capacity performance are established. Every time, CFR Călători organizes tenders for the acquisition of new equipment. The main criterion is the lowest price for the equipment which corresponds to the technical features imposed by the functional requirements.
ERTMS – Level 2
Last year, Emmanuel Brutin, Senior Public Affairs Manager at UNIFE (European Railway Association), said that locomotives should be equipped with different systems, especially seeing as, at European level, there are over 20 signalling systems being used, which causes delays and major traffic issues. According to him, the ERTMS system will surely solve these issues at European level. According to Alstom, the ERTMS – Level 2 system is a new generation technology which allows a higher level of safety along the tracks through automation and the installation of a GSM-R system which provides, among others, real-time information of the driver. The issue now is to see how long it will take before this system will be implemented on a wider scale.
by Ionela Micu
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