Karlsruhe light rail controlled by INIT’s ITCS in the brand new city tunnel

MOBILE-ITCS covers rail operations’ requirements

Entrance to the newly opened City Tunnel

At the tunnel entrance, the vehicle operators must switch from driving by sight to obeying an intricate signaling system to ensure operational safety throughout the tunnel. But switching to another operating system is not necessary. (Photos: © KVV | Paul Gärtner)

Karlsruhe, 13 December 2021

Since this weekend, Karlsruhe's light rail system doesn’t only operate as a train far into the region, or as a tram within the city and its suburbs, but now also like a metro in the newly opened City Tunnel called “the T”. Whether they are underground or 100 km away in Öhringen, all light rail vehicles, trams and buses serving the Karlsruhe Transport Authority (KVV) area, are controlled across the entire network within the same operations control system - the Intermodal Transport Control System MOBILE-ITCS from INIT.

At the tunnel entrance, the vehicle operators must switch from driving by sight to obeying an intricate signaling system to ensure operational safety throughout the tunnel. Until now, this has always required the operating companies to also switch to another operating system.

For the two Karlsruhe rail transport companies Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH (VBK) and Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft mbH (AVG), however, it was essential to continue to control all non-safety related aspects in MOBILE-ITCS, even in signaled sections of the network such as the new tunnel.

The requested functionalities include operations monitoring, any necessary dispatching measures, voice and data communication and last but not least, passenger information – all of which are carried out by INIT’s proven ITCS. Over the last few years, a solution for these new tunnel requirements has been steadily prepared.

Challenges encountered during the U-Strab operation

For the tunnel operation (in German called U-Strab: “underground tramway”) some challenges had to be solved which, until now had not been encountered in surface transport - primarily in the area of vehicle positioning as well as voice and data radio.

Voice and data radio ensured

In order to meet the requirements of BOStrab (German regulations for tramway construction and operation) that all light rail and tram vehicles must be reachable by voice radio in a system that is independent of the public radio network, the tunnel was equipped with analogue private radio system transmitters.

As a result, the benefits of the existing surface traffic private radio system (e.g. easy group or line calls), are now also available in the tunnel.

Vehicle location in the tunnel

INIT has virtualised a tried and tested method for locating vehicles. MOBILE-ITCS compares the occupancy of the individual block sections transmitted by the interlocking system with virtual beacons set at critical points in the tunnel. In conjunction with logical positioning, the ITCS always knows whether the vehicle is still on the planned route. If it diverts from this route, the dispatchers in the control centre have an array of options at their disposal, via the ITCS, to intervene in a suitable manner. Using this solution, reliable passenger information can also be guaranteed when the train is in the tunnel.

Interoperability as an essential requirement

With the expansion of its Intermodal Transport Control System, INIT created a solution that takes the world-renowned Karlsruhe Model into account in terms of IT systems. This tram train concept promises its users nothing less than transfer-free travel from across the region to Karlsruhe's city centre, and therefore urgently requires the relevant rail- and tramway networks to be interconnected. In the 1990s, this led to the development of track-sharing and dual-mode light rail vehicles in order to be able to also use Deutsche Bahn's (German Rail) heavy rail track facilities. VBK, AVG and INIT have now conquered the next challenge: operational control of rail vehicles as well as reliable passenger information can be guaranteed in the new U-Strab tunnel by INIT’s MOBILE-ITCS.

Contact

Andrea Mohr-Braun

Head of Department Corporate Marketing

INIT SE

Germany

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