A system with fewer components and keener competition is expected to lead to reduced costs of both installation and maintenance. It also enables speeds higher than of 200 km/h.
Facts in brief
- ETCS + GSM-R = ERTMS
- ERTMS is available in three levels
- Level 1 is similar to today’s ATC system
- Level 2 and Level 3 are based on radio signals
- Common traffic management system in the all of Europe
- Allows for common operating rules throughout Europe
- The present implementation of ATC-2 cannot manage speeds higher than 200 km/h
- Capacity improvements
- Improved functionality
- Improved accessibility on the traffic management system
- Cost reductions
- Opens the supplier market for traffic management systems
- Opens the European markets to train operators
The main strategy for ERTMS in Sweden is Level 2
The Swedish ERTMS Programme is responsible for the introduction of the new ERTMS traffic management system in Sweden.
Level 2 offers a larger number of functions and is a more flexible system than Level 1. Among other things, scope is available for reducing the distance between signal points, which results in increased capacity. Moreover, Level 2 is more effective in disturbed situations, such as track circuit faults.
The fact that Sweden is introducing Level 1 at a number of places is mainly because today’s GSM-R cannot manage to handle all of the information needed at stations in which we have very many vehicles at the same time, such as the Stockholm Central Station, the Malmö Central Station and the Hallsberg station.
ERTMS Regional, Level 3, is a cost-effective system for lines with low traffic intensity. It is introduced on the present sections of track without line blocking.