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In related news, Nomad tells me the Dutch government decided to migrate signalling on all lines to some version of ETCS in ten years. That makes the Netherlands the fifth country (after Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg) to make this decision.
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Perhaps it is instructive to mention that this only happened after there was an accident because the 50 years old system wasn't implemented properly leading to a train accident and one death. There have been more accidents, but those didn't involve deaths.
by Wilfred on Wed Jun 20th, 2012 at 09:47:20 AM EST
Meanwhile, the Schwebebahn is installing ETCS. Is this really needed? There's only one track, and you can see pretty much everything that's in front of you. The only thing you can't see is what is up there on top of the track, and I don't see how ETCS will help with that.
by gk (g k quattro due due sette "at" gmail.com) on Wed Jun 20th, 2012 at 09:52:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
No, there are two tracks, and 60 km/h is too fast to trust operation by sight. I had a hunch that they use ETCS because the existing signalling system has aged, but after checking, I see there could be an additional reason. The existing system only allows three-minute headways, with most blocks (signal intervals) being the section from one station to the next. So a new system with shorter blocks (scaled to the braking distances of the new trains) and the two-minute headways mentioned in the Wiki article could allow for a higher train frequency.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed Jun 20th, 2012 at 03:31:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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