Infrabel reached the ETCS milestone following the installation of the digital system on 127 km of Brussels-Midi – Halle rail line which now brings the ETCS – equipped rail network to 54%.
The major signalling work on the section included various station locations such as Bruxelles-Midi, Halle, Boondael, Holleken, Petite Île, Anderlecht, Forest and around 15 teams from the rail infrastructure manager carried out the final adjustments and tests for the installation and commissioning of 650 ETCS beaconsalong the tracks.These beacons ensure the transmission of information from the ground to the trains.In total, 300 signals were equipped with ETCS and 3,200 potential routes have been tested.
Out of the 127 km of main tracks were equipped with ETCS, 66 km are in the rail grids of Brussels-Midi station, 18 km between Brussels-Midi and Lembeek, and 43 km between Forest and Holleken and between Hal and Boondael.
About 1,200 passenger trains pass through Brussels-Midi station every day, which is a third of all the trains that run daily on the Belgian rail network. The installation of the digital signalling system on this line is a continuation of the previous phase which took place on 18 December 2022 when Infrabel completed to equip 58 km of main tracks (equipping 320 signals) between the Brussels-Midi station and Schaerbeek station, the so-called North-Midi junction, with works carried out on the other side of Brussels-Midi station.
With the commissioning of ETCS in the area between Brussels-Midi and Halle, the heart of our rail network is now fully equipped with ETCS. The installation of the European safety system is and will remain a top priority for Infrabel Together with the automated rail traffic management systems, ETCS offers our customers the highest level of safety and strengthens Belgium’s position as having one of the best equipped and therefore the safest in Europe,” Benoît Gilson, CEO Infrabel said.
Following the ETCS deployment on the Brussels-Midi – Halle rail line, Infrabel managed to equip 54% of its rail network, representing 3,462 km. The aim is to install ETCS on the entire Belgian railway rail infrastructure by the end of 2025.
The Belgian rail network is equipped with the ETCS L1 (limited and full supervision solutions) with full supervision deployed on the Corridor C, the freight axis from the port of Antwerp via Leuven and Namur to Athus, and on lines 10 and 36C/2 and the Ans – Angleur section and line 36/37 equipped with ETCS level 2. The lines where the ETCS1+2 FS with full supervision is installed, it allows the train driver to receive signal and speed information it its cab. This system is installed on high-speed lines to Germany and to the Netherlands.
The network is also equipped with TVM-430 (transmission voies-machine), a French system implemented only on high-speed line 1 between Lembeek and the French border. The operation is similar to ETCS as the driver’s cab picks up a signal transmitted by the tracks, informing the driver of his speed in relation to the authorised speed limit.
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