The National Transport Commission (NTC) Future Rail Technology Forum 2024, held earlier this month, brought together international experts who are on the digitalisation journey, with Australia’s railway leaders.
The digitalisation of rail presents Australia with a generational opportunity to lift the safety, productivity and efficiency of rail across the continent, and to learn from decades of experience from the world’s early adopters.
Carolyn Walsh, NTC Chair said the overseas experience showed it was critical to have a co-ordinated, national strategy to support the digitalisation of rail across Australia.
“What we learnt from Germany and the UK is that it has to be done in an order that strategically makes sense,” Walsh said.
“Not only for investments in the rail infrastructure, but we also must understand what it means for rolling stock operators, particularly freight operators, who need to either buy new locos that are compatible with the new systems or retrofit their existing locos.
“It’s very important we make investments in the right sequence to get the best outcomes.”
The NTC is developing strategic policy advice for the nation’s transport and infrastructure ministers on a digital pathway for Australia with priority on the eastern seaboard, where significant investments in the European Train Control System (ETCS) are underway.
Joern Schlichting, one of the world’s most experienced rail signalling project managers who was responsible for some of the first ETCS projects in Germany (including high speed), said Australia is likely to have benefited from waiting to adopt the digital systems as they are now mature, used all over the world, with multiple global suppliers driving competition and innovation.
Now Deutsche Bahn’s senior advisor of international operations, Schlichting said ETCS was best thought of as a language that enables capacity, safety and efficiency benefits, but it requires a serious, consistent approach with one national strategy.
He said ETCS rollout in Germany had been slower than envisaged and a continuing process, however it has allowed Europe’s networks to configure their systems to suit the requirements of individual freight and passenger rail corridors, while keeping interoperability with other ETCS compliant networks, including high speed rail across countries and on key freight corridors.
Schlichting said ETCS should not only be understood as a technology but also as a common language.
With 33,000 kilometres of rail network squeezed into the size of Victoria, Germany is also using ETCS to improve capacity instead of laying new tracks and tunnelling in built-up cities and regions.
“It gives you the ability to configure the system the way you need it, whether it is for high density routes or low-density environments, including rural areas,” said Schlichting.
While he would have preferred a “big bang” approach to rolling out ETCS across Europe to realise the many benefits sooner, the reality is that European countries have approached the expansion at different speeds and not with the same consistency.
Some governments, including the German government, have ordered the realisation of pilot projects first for financial reasons. However, as these typically take several years, this contributes to a large time lag between European countries.
Moving from a century-old mechanical system to a digital system is a significant mind shift.
“You can spend billions going in the wrong direction, but in terms of de-risking the future investments and not being locked into a proprietary technology, this is the safest route,” Schlichting said.
“It’s what everyone is doing, and it will be the main technology that’s available in the future.
“The continuation with the existing proprietary legacy systems (with lineside signalling) is by far the most expensive and inflexible solution.”
Just as having a common language is important for the interoperability of train control systems, having a common data language helps networks share and use the enormous amount of data which new technologies generate to get the most benefit from new investments.
Tom Lee, from the United Kingdom’s Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), said post-Brexit, the UK was still largely adopting European rules and practices as it made economic sense to align.
A focus in the UK, with the establishment of Great British Railways, is to try and get better value out of ETCS by overcoming barriers to increasing digitalisation and being realistic about delivering the long-term plan to roll it out across the country.
ETCS started off in the UK almost 12 years ago with the first trial in Wales, with most of the other early adoption happening on urban rail.
The first main line adoption of ETCS is happening now on the East Coast of the UK from Kings Cross to Peterborough with trains continuing to Leeds, York and Edinburgh.
Lee said about 285 commuter and express passenger multiple units and a third of its freight locomotives needed to be fitted for this initial 160-kilometre corridor to achieve the biggest benefits from its digital investment.
He said the simplest way to avoid unnecessary costs in rolling out ETCS was to avoid premature investments and costly retrofitting of rolling stock.
“Providing ETCS as part of new build is much, much more economic than retrofitting. Medium to long-term, ETCS is the solution,” said Lee.
The UK aspires to have most of its network covered by the digital technology by 2054.
Lee also noted the increasing importance of sharing data seamlessly between organisations to deliver a safe, high-performing railway.
UK RSSB is developing a Data Interoperability Framework to guide the UK rail sector to an “open by default” environment where data is publicly shared and easily accessible.
“What we are looking at creating here is a framework that will define terminology and concepts,” said Lee.
“It provides a structure to measure the current levels of data interoperability and guidance to move towards data sources that give us higher levels of data interoperability.”
Having a common language and format to share data will allow Australia’s rail operators and RIMs to make better asset and operational decisions, and to better inform future expansions.
Amy Lezala, Department of Transport (Victoria), Chief Engineer Rail said sharing data in a common language will allow the industry to demonstrate that the investments made now are going to save a lot of money over the life of the technology.
“We have to avoid getting to the situation where we’re data rich and information poor (and) make sure all the data that we start collecting through our systems can be turned into usable information,” said Lezala.
Other presenters included Dr John Easton and Professor Lei Chen from the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education (UK) and Mike Barfoot, Senior Director, Operations and Regulatory Affairs, Railway Association Canada (RAC).
The development of digital twin technology is being used extensively now in the UK. An eighth of the nation’s track is now simulated and is being used to test multiple timetables to achieve better use of shared track. As well as strategic use of power supply to improve sustainability, and increased speeds of local trains from 100 kilometres to 120 kilometres without the need for more physical investment.
Dr Easton said the other major trend in Europe and the UK was reducing the amount of physical testing of railways, which had driven up cost and allowed companies to interpret national standards differently.
Barfoot said North America was at a critical juncture as it modernised century-old railways, with passenger rail adopting ETCS, and freight requiring interoperability with the US system.
Canada shares many physical similarities with Australia’s rail system, with vast and remote regions, however the rail network is 12 per cent larger than its road system, making it the primary mode of freight transport.
Canada shares the longest international border in the world with the US which is where 90 per cent of its population lives, making interoperability with the US rail system vital.
“We don’t have PTC or ETCS in Canada yet, we are still waiting for policy direction from the Federal Government,” Barfoot said.
However, he said the Canadian Government has given the industry a “notice of intent” that it will require enhanced train protection, in the aftermath of a 2013 major derailment incident.
He said the key to achieving interoperability was building collaboration and trust between government and industry.
Wrapping up the forum, the NTC’s chief executive officer, Michael Hopkins, said the sharing of lessons learnt across the globe gave Australia rich information and experience to draw on to inform its strategic path to digitalisation.