CITEF continues to strengthen its international presence with the participation in the development, deployment and testing of a new simulation system for the integration and validation of real equipment and ETCS Level 2 track data at the offices of Transport for NSW in Sydney, Australia.
This integrated test laboratory is part of Sydney’s ambitious project to migrate the current signalling system of the commuter network to ERTMS/ETCS Level 2, which the New South Wales government allocated funding for in June 2018 as part of the modernisation plan for Sydney’s rail network. As a first step, the ETCS system is being installed on the line between Cronulla and Sutherland, an environment that was included in the simulation system to materialise the integration and testing.
CITEF has worked as SIEMENS partner in the development and delivery of the system and in the integration of track data and real equipment, trackside and onboard, from SIEMENS and other technologists.
As part of the works, CITEF has supported with its extensive experience in the delivery for infrastructure simulation, simulation of railway traffic and of the ETCS on-board equipment (EVC and DMI), and development of several interfaces.
One of the challenges was the integration with real equipment that was achieved by using the interface specified in the ERTMS/ETCS system, which defines the interoperability standard used by UNISIG.
Works were split in two locations, Madrid for developing and supporting overall integration at SIEMENS facilities, and Sydney for supporting SIEMENS during final acceptance and integration with other suppliers.
This new environment is now part of the group of both training and verification and validation simulators that CITEF has installed on three continents and marks a new milestone by including Oceania. Australia thus joins the list along with Japan, Singapore, China, India, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Chile, and the United States.