Performance Evaluation of Train Moving-Block Control

Abstract

In moving block systems for railway transportation a central controller periodically communicates to the train how far it can safely advance. On-board automatic protection mechanisms stop the train if no message is received during a given time window.In this paper we consider as reference a typical implementation of moving-block control for metro and quantify the rate of spurious Emergency Brakes (EBs), i.e. of train stops due to communication losses and not to an actual risk of collision. Such unexpected EBs can happen at any point on the track and are a major service disturbance.Our general formula for the EB rate requires a probabilistic characterization of losses and delays. Calculations are surprisingly simple in the case of homogeneous and independent packet losses. Our approach is computationally ecient even when emergency brakes are very rare (as they should be) and can no longer be estimated via discrete-event simulations.

Operation-oriented reliability and availability evaluation for onboard high-speed train control system with dynamic Bayesian network

“…Some studies formulated non-Markovian models for the moving-block control (communications-based train control (CBTC) or ETCS level 3), and their works are more detailed in the communication availability. 12–14…”

“…Some studies formulated non-Markovian models for the moving-block control (communications-based train control (CBTC) or ETCS level 3), and their works are more detailed in the communication availability. [12][13][14] For the onboard system, the studies discussed above mainly focus on the reliability and availability analysis in the design phase. Since railways require a long-term and sustainable strategy, performance during operation and maintenance needs to be analyzed.…”