Experitse, Software and tools for European rail traffic management signalling system

Kurzfassung

A Belgian company has developed a niche expertise in the European rail traffic management signaling system (ERTMS). This system has become a standard at European level: EU countries are gradually installing it on some of their train lines. License agreement, technical cooperation or commercial agreement with technical assistance are sought with companies specialised in contiguous areas, exposed to ERTMS customers.

Details

Today, trains are equipped with up to seven different navigational systems. Each system is extremely costly and takes up space on-board.

A train crossing from one European country to another must switch the operating standards as it crosses the border. All this adds to travel time and operational and maintenance costs. Together with other technical differences – for instance in terms of rail gauge, electricity voltage, rolling stock design, etc. – the existence of more than 20 train control systems in Europe has always been a major obstacle to the development of international rail transport.
For this reason, the development of a common European system (ERTMS) – which is becoming a standard and is being adopted also by non-European countries - is gradually allowing interoperability and increasing European railway's competitiveness.

Nevertheless, players linked in a way or another to this train control standard have to face huge challenges for developing, installing, monitoring and servicing ERTMS and make it gradually replace the existing incompatible systems.

Innovative Aspects:
This Brussels-based company has developed software libraries, software tools and a lot of project expertise around ERTMS. Company's team is fully proficient in:
- the main ERTMS UNISIG (Union industry of signalling) standards,
- the production of certifiable software, according to EN50128 standards
- the team has a proven record in using static analysis tools and coding guidelines enforcements environment to provide industrial-grade software with guaranteed properties that testing alone no matter how extensive, cannot deliver.
- They cover both embedded and desktop-level development from the application layer down to the hardware if necessary.

With such a sound expertise, the company would like now to develop together with new partners new value-added applications related to ERTMS Railway Signalling Systems.

The company would like to offer its expertise and technical know-how to other companies specialised in other contiguous areas, exposed to ERTMS customers, as
detailed in the "type of partner sought" section.