Czech railway switches to ETCS system

There are more and more trains on the Czech railway network that run under the supervision of the European Train Control System ETCS. Since the beginning of August, it has been used by carriers that meet the required conditions on the lines where exclusive ETCS operation will be introduced from January next year. Presentation of individual functions of the system for journalists took place today at the test railway circuit in Velim.

From 1 August, carriers are obliged to run under ETCS on the lines already equipped with this system, provided they use a vehicle equipped with the appropriate on-board unit and are driven by an appropriately trained driver. This fact manifested itself already in the first week of August, when a total of 4,480 trains ran under ETCS supervision. This represents an increase of 961 trains compared to the first week of July.

The planned introduction of exclusive operation under the supervision of the single European Train Control System will take place gradually over a four-week period in January next year. In total, it will be used on 622 kilometres of the most important lines in the Czech Republic.

Commissioning of the exclusive ETCS operation:

  • Česká Třebová – Olomouc – Dluhonice – Prosenice/Přerov (from 1 January 2025)
  • Břeclav – Bohumín (from 8 January 2025)
  • Česká Třebová – Adamov, Modřice – Břeclav (from 15 January 2025)
  • Praha-Běchovice – Pardubice – Česká Třebová (from 22 January 2025)

Hundreds of vehicles will be running under ETCS supervision, and more than 1,000 drivers need to be trained. Knowledge of the system will also be needed by 500 dispatchers from the central traffic control workplaces in Prague and Přerov and by traffic dispatchers who will be prepared to control traffic directly in stations.

After ETCS starts exclusive operation on main lines in January next year, 50,000 trains a month will run under the supervision of the ETCS system. In terms of mileage and tonnes of freight transported, this will represent 42 % of all operational performance on the entire network of Správa železnic. 

Since the beginning of the year, seven stress tests have been carried out to verify the correct functioning of the ETCS system and to identify potential problems, during which a total of 796 vehicle runs have been made under the supervision of the ETCS system. It worked correctly in 97.36 % of the runs. This means that on average only 3 out of 100 trains experienced a connection breakdown and subsequent automatic train braking.

The last test took place from 27 to 29 July in the section Praha-Běchovice – Kolín – Pardubice. It included a total of 160 vehicle runs, with 100 % ETCS availability. The system worked correctly in all cases.

Exclusive ETCS operation was first introduced on 1 January last year on the modernised line from Olomouc to Uničov. 2,000 trains per month run on the line and the current average ETCS availability is 99.5 %.

Soubory ke stažení

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