photo: Správa železnic/Vectron locomotive successfully passed through the ETCS compatibility tests in the Czech Republic
Railway Administration in cooperation with Siemens and ČD Cargo was successful in testing the compatibility of Siemens Vectron locomotive with the new united European safety system ETCS, which is continuously being installed on Czech railway tracks. These locomotives, from which one is a part of the fleet of Railway Administration, are first on Czech railways that can fully utilize the benefits under the ETCS.
Testing of Vectron locomotives was done on the tracks Břeclav – Česká Třebová – Kolín, Břeclav – Petrovice u Karviné a Praha – Olbramovice, fitted with second and third generation of ETCS systems.
„Successful execution of planned tests of compatibility confirmed that ETCS can be used in full capacity on both tracks and vehicles. For Czech railways it’s an essential step mainly in the security of transportation, energy savings, and smoothness of operations,“ said the CEO of Railway Administration Jiří Svoboda.
„The pace of construction of the stationary part of the united European train control system ETCS on railway tracks under Railway Administration is very high,“ said Roman Kokšal, CEO of Siemens Mobility ČR. „The fitting of stationary ETCS parts is one of the steps. For the full use of the system, it’s necessary to use trains equipped with mobile ETCS parts. I am very pleased that the Vectron locomotive is the first train in the Czech Republic that successfully completed the complex and difficult tests and subsequent tests of compatibility. Therefore it can be operated on specific sections of the railway directly under the supervision of ETCS.“
„We are pleased that we were part of the testing and we were able to contribute to successful completion of the compatibility tests of Vectron locomotive in the Czech Republic. We are also actively pursuing the upgrade of mobile parts of ETCS to Baseline 3 (basic specification 3), which coincides with current European goals in ERTMS. Our ambition is to speed up the stationary part and gradually be more and more part of verification process of trains under the ETCS supervision, both with new traction units equipped with ETCS right from the production and with the traction units equipped thereafter,“ said David Jelínek, head of the management department of traction units and ČD Cargo expert on ETCS.
Railway Administration expanded its fleet of diagnostic vehicles with multi-system Siemens Vectron locomotive last autumn. It will be used for diagnostic of domestic and foreign railways including the parts using ETCS.