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Smarter Trains on Track

Posted on: Monday, 26 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

Mr Skilton says that having GPS locators will make it easier for train controllers to work out where best to make trains wait for one another at passing points, and what speed they should travel.

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A HUGE overhaul of New Zealand's 15-year-old railway communications system and the installation of GPS units in locomotives is set to result in better passenger information, increased fuel efficiency and improved safety for the rail network.

The multimillion-dollar initiative, codenamed Project Kupe, is a joint undertaking between state-owned enterprise Ontrack, which owns New Zealand's 4000 kilometres of rail track, and train operator Toll Holdings.

Toll has so far fitted GPS units to 20 of its 150 mainline locomotives, which allow train navigators to track their location by satellite.

In order to get the data off the trains and back to Ontrack's railway control centres, Ontrack's network of 120 radio masts and VHF hilltop and tunnel repeaters will have to be overlaid with a communications system capable of handling the data.

Ontrack has issued a tender for the upgrade, which it hopes to complete by August.

Technical services manager John Skilton says that at the moment Ontrack and Toll have no way of knowing the location of trains on the 60 per cent of the rail network that is unsignalled -- other than by calling up train drivers, asking them, and then plotting their likely progress.

The existing radio network is aging and vulnerable to outages as the VHF repeaters are "daisy chained", like Christmas tree lights, in chains of up to six repeaters.

Mr Skilton says that having GPS locators will make it easier for train controllers to work out where best to make trains wait for one another at passing points, and what speed they should travel to minimise fuel usage.

It will also ensure help arrives sooner in an emergency.

"If there is an incident the train controller can pinpoint where the train is."

Mr Skilton says Ontrack will pass on the GPS data via an Internet interface to Toll, which could then make real-time information on their location available to its customers.

Toll plans to fit its maintenance fleet and then its metropolitan passenger trains with GPS units once it has equipped its mainline locos.

This means commuters may one day be able to view the location of trains over the Internet using PDAs or hi-tech cellphones.

By far the bulk of the cost of Project Kupe is being picked up by Ontrack, which agreed to invest $200 million in the rail network as part of its agreement to buy the network back from Toll last year.

"All of us get the benefit," says Mr Skilton. "Our charter is to run a safe, efficient railway. And if Toll can reduce its fuel bill, drivers feel safer and running times are improved, that's good for Toll."

Ontrack's existing radio network has very limited ability to carry information other than voice traffic, though it is used to carry signals sent by train drivers using a pedal that indicates they are awake.

The improved data network will mean "warrants" that authorise drivers to occupy stretches of single-track line can be sent to locos as a computer file, rather than being read out and then read back by train navigators over the VHF network as at present.

It may also mean train controllers can be alerted automatically if a train is speeding.

Ontrack envisages its hill-top repeaters will be connected using some form of terrestrial wireless technology to become "nodes" on an Internet protocol network. Mr Skilton says it's open to suggestions from technology providers as to how to do this.

"The indication we've had is the network providers can reach most of our sites."

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Source: Dominion Post

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