We developed a railway total simulator that can simulate not only each sub system such as a train, signalling system, and power supply system but also train operation and energy usage based on the collaboration of subsystems for all railroads. The purpose of this simulator is to determine the influence of the energy consumption of trains and substations depending on the change in train characteristics, timetables, power supply systems and so on. The targets of calculation for this simulator are the energy consumption of substations and trains restricted by the condition of signalling systems and traffic control systems. We evaluate the simulation accuracy of the proposed simulator for a DC feeding system by using measurements obtained from the Okinawa Urban Monorail. It is confirmed that the simulation results can help predict power behaviour with a sufficient accuracy on railway lines and the average simulation differences were within 6%, namely a 3.6% difference in rolling stock power consumption, 3.9% difference in rolling stock regenerative power, and 3.0% difference in substation power supply. On comparing the calculation results of the proposed simulator with actual measurement data from a general DC power railway system, it is concluded that the simulator and actual results have a sufficiently low difference.

Conventional communication-based train control (CBTC) systems enable the frequent operation of trains by detecting train's position and the telecommunication system between the onboard and trackside controllers compared to traditional signalling systems. However, the railway signalling system is still costly, and the cost of the trackside central controllers is particularly high because high-performance failsafe hardware and software are required to control the many pieces of field equipment. Given this situation, we have proposed a concept for a cost-effective CBTC system that provides functionalities equivalent to those of existing signalling systems by using ring topology information shared among the onboard and switch controllers without trackside central controllers. Its basic mechanism is the circulation of a telegram containing information about the exclusive rights to virtual blocks in turn among the controllers within each controlled section. This mechanism reduces the equipment cost to approximately one-third that of a conventional CBTC system. We have now conducted a feasibility study to verify the practicality of this system and have identified potential problems related to system reliability and transportation capacity. This paper presents solutions to these problems and experimental results to show that the proposed system is technically valid and can be applied to many railway lines.