Railway recording systems and safety

Almost half of the world's locomotives operate in Europe. It is therefore not too surprising that Europe leads the way in defining new requirements and standards and, moreover, is able to implement them internationally. The expansion of the European Union due to the opening of its eastern borders and eastward enlargement means that the railways - the most environmentally-friendly means of mass transport - have to improve their performance with new rolling stock and through automation. This is also applicable to urban transport. Both finance and new technologies have to be made available. Trains must operate at shorter headways, higher speeds, beyond national borders and be safe.

CENELEC (Comite Europeen de Normalisation Electrotechnique), whose member countries are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic. Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland has defined the term "safety" in its EN 50126, EN 50129, EN 50128 and EN 50159 standards. The objective of these standards is to avoid putting human life and limb at danger due to a technical malfunction. Member countries have mutually decided to accept these standards as national ones and to declare them as legal documents. Already several functions such as roll-back protection for metros and mountain railways with a defined safety integrity level (SIL) are required by different countries. All these applications require a modular and flexible system allowing simple and cost-efficient adaptation to the corresponding requisites.

 

Installing a simple "Black Box" in a vehicle to comply with legal requirements and only analyzing the data in case of an accident is neither reasonable nor economically desirable, despite the comparative low cost of such solutions. It is more sensible to use the received data regularly. In this way it can analyze data during operation to assure such safety related functions as roll-back protection, deadman-pedal (SIFA), etc.

To help customers in the design of new applications and modernization projects and to simplify the certification for an entire system, HaslerRail has developed the safety board (SABOA). SABOA has been developed according to the most stringent CENELEC standards in order to reach up to SIL4 certification for the following functions:

- Rollback Protection: Monitors the direction of travel. The brakes are activated if the train travels in the wrong direction - SIL4.

- Driver Safety Device: Monitors the driver (also called the dead-man control, SIFA or VACMA). If the driver lacks vigilance the brakes are activated. This function can fulfill the requirements according RF136:2002 and UIC641 when correctly configured - SIL4.

- Speed Threshold: Monitors the vehicle's speed. If the speed exceeds a pre-defined value, the brakes are activated. Useful for mountain railways and metros - SIL4.

- Zero Speed Detection: Monitors the vehicle's speed. If the vehicle is stopped, the signal to open the doors is activated - SIL2.

- Speed Indicator Check: Monitors the speed indicator. A pre-defined deviation between the present vehicle speed and the indicated speed activates the brakes -SIL2.

Based on the successful assessment by TUV Suddeutschland, the certificate with number Z10 05 07 was issued on July 21 2005.

What began more than 100 years ago with simple speed recording in the case of an accident, has developed into a complex and most important system. The systems record, monitor and control train processes in the locomotive and produce valuable data to help to optimize operations, reduce costs and increase safety.

 

Exercise 1. Study the following words and words-expressions:

enlargement - збільшення, розширення

to be applicable to - бути придатним

limb - кінцівка, частина тіла

malfunction - аварійний режим, несправна робота

requisite - необхідна річ, щось потрібне

to comply - виконувати, погоджуватися

deadman-pedal -важіль, вмонтований у важку плиту

direction - напрямок

threshold - поріг, ліміт

pre-defined value - значення, встановлене заздалегідь

to monitor - контролювати, перевіряти

valuable - важливий, корисний

data - дані, інформація

performance - технічна характеристика

environment - навколишнє середовище

integrity - цілісність

mutual - взаємний, двусторонній

stringent - точний, обов’язковий, вагомий

deviation - відхилення

roll-back - відкат у зворотньому зв`язку

Exercise 2. Translate the following English word-expressions into Ukrainian:

Half of world’s locomotives, defining new requirements and standards, environmentally-friendly means of mass transport, safety integrity level, cost-efficient adaptation, economically desirable, to use the received data regularly, safety related functions, simple speed recording.

Exercise 3. Make up 10 questions to the text and answer them.