ETCS National Integration Facility 2020

Vertex employed to develop the safety case and support development of the operational controls and integration of works between the equipment suppliers, Network Rail and Train Operators. The deliverables included:

• Developed the concept of testing operations adjacent to live passenger service
• Analysis of the equipment to be deployed, its integration and operation in the test environment and how the test site can be returned to passenger service within 30 minutes
• Provided a staged Safety case that is fully compliant to the requirements detailed by the European Common Safety Method, the works included:
  • Safety Planning for staged safety case from a simple demonstration to full Level 3 ETCS without any secondary safety controls
  • Numerous HAZID/HAZOP workshops in order to assess risks of running the test train adjacent to passenger trains
  • Safety hazard identification to identify and evaluate the effects of hazardous conditions on passengers, staff, the railway infrastructure and equipment, and the public
  • Risk analysis and risk evaluation of the identified hazards
  • Identifying practical control measures and developing the system and subsystems safety to eliminate, mitigate, control and manage the risks
    Review and approval of proposed design and demonstration of compliance with the identified safety requirements
  • Documenting the safety concepts incorporated and used during design and providing the basis for developing operating procedures to either complement the design safety concepts or resolve the hazards through procedures, training, or other means if the design does not satisfactorily address the hazards

Our works are ongoing and to date our service has provide the following outputs:

• Fully approved Common Safety Method Safety Case for the test facility and since 2018 use of the test facility to run trains under ETCS control at remote Railway Integration Development Centres
• Approval for the Thameslink ETCS and ATO integration testing
• Approval for the Crossrail CBTC and ETCS integration testing
• Development of UK requirements for integration of Automatic Train Control (ATC) and Automatic Train Operation (ATO) with ETCS
• Enabling testing of a number of rolling stock classes such as 313, 97, Hitachi IEP class 800/801 and Bombardier class 700 trains
• Enabling testing of the ETCS degraded mode solution known as COMPASS
• Full on board and lineside testing of Level 2 and 3 testing without TPWS
• Hybrid Level 3 for Network Rail and ProRail