Last week, industry participants from passenger, freight, Network Rail and Siemens came together in support of GTR’s testing of newly introduced in-cab signalling system, European Train Control System (ETCS), on the Northern City Line. The purpose of the testing, which took place over three nights between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, was to stress test the new system installed on the infrastructure and inside the cabs by simulating a peak service with 10 trains per hour. Amongst the cohort of testers was Freightliner’s ERTMS Operational Specialist, Craig Evans. Craig’s responsibility in this was to assist GTR drivers during the testing by keeping track of problems and recording significant occasions.
When asking Craig about the experience, he said,
“It was an invaluable experience to work alongside the GTR ERTMS project team on their ETCS Level 2 testing on the Northern City Line. Despite this being a non-freight route, I was there in my capacity as an ETCS Subject Matter Expert to support the testing. This underscores the enduring industry partnerships fuelling the achievements of the East Coast Digital Programme.”
This testing is the most rigorous ever conducted on a rail system since the commissioning of computer-based train control (CBTC) by Crossrail. Congratulations to GTR and all who contributed to this major milestone.
