Train Control System (ETCS)

Train Control System (ETCS)

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© Fraunhofer IOSB-INA / ON

Train control is crucial in implementing the high level of safety in the rail infrastructure. The European Train Control System (ETCS), in particular with Level 3, which enables the track to be released purely via the position report, creates new challenges in train integrity control, but also new opportunities for more cost-effective reactivation of branch lines. In combination with the use of the 5G mobile communications standard for a Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), good conditions can be created to enable automated driving (Automatic Train Operation, ATO for short) and thus to reactivate and operate lines economically. Innovative vehicle concepts such as the MONOCAB require these prerequisites in order to be able to offer individual local passenger transport economically.

Fraunhofer and its partners are researching these functional, secure communication technologies and sensor systems and testing them in the MONOCAB application.