Track and signalling

J, Leicester   14/02/2017 at 12:45

Digital signalling will be great for the railways - as long as the system is secure and has suitable contingency measures in place. I can picture the chaos already if the system either malfunctions or is hacked. Given the chaos surrounding DSB's attempted implementation of ERTMS network-wide on what is a far less complex network, I'm still sceptical that it will be a viable technology to implement in anything but isolated spots and self-contained areas for a number of decades yet.

Jerry Alderson   15/02/2017 at 02:00

J of Leicester wrote "I can picture the chaos already if the system either malfunctions or is hacked." In September 2016 I attended a presentation to Railfuture in Norwich by a Network Rail Digital Railway manager at hwich the subject of hacking was raised. ETCS is believed to be very secure and in the very unlikely event that it was hacked then the hacker would only be able to hack a short section of line as the next section would have completely different codes and they would have to hack that separately. I don't know how this protection would be achieved but I assume it is a bit like a dongle used to access a network whereby the dongle is constantly generating a new number and every time a connection is made a new key is needed.

Andrew Gwilt   20/02/2017 at 00:53

Network Rail’s Class 313 "yellow" train could also be used on the West Coast Main Line, East Coast Main Line, Midland Mainline (once electrified to Sheffield and Leeds), Great Western Main Line, Great Eastern Main Line and other lines for track checkups, maintenance and track defects along with other Network Rail's rail vehicles that are used on engineering works to keep our railways safer and to minimise delays on our railways.

David   22/02/2017 at 21:46

Andrew, a 75mph suburban unit won't be suitable for those lines. In any case it's not a track maintenance unit as I am sure I have said before.

Andrew Gwilt   23/02/2017 at 21:49

Fair Point David.