Rail Interoperability in Spain. ERTMS real deployment 1I.J. Iglesias. Presenting Author, 1A. Berrios, 1A. Arranz, 1M. Cambronero1, 2J.A.Jimenez, 2C.Arias, 2I.Ribera, 3D.Molina, 3J.Tamarit and 3J.Bueno Coauthors 1ADIF. Railways Infrastructure Manager, Madrid, Spain. 2Renfe Operadora. Spanish Railways operator, Madrid, Spain. 3CEDEX Studies and Experimentation Centre of Public Works and Transportation (Fomento) Ministry, Madrid, Spain Abstract This paper shows how, at the time being, the rail interoperability is a reality in Spain by means of presenting the current implementation of ERTMS/ETCS (European Rail Traffic Management System/European Train Control System) in the new Spanish high speed lines. This has been done in the frame of the very ambitious Spanish high speed program which consists on the construction and putting in operation of approximately 9.000 Km of new HSLs in the period 2005-2020, with a total investment of around 83.000 M€. The role of Spain as pioneer in implementing the new signaling system is clearly highlighted in this paper. 1.- Introduction The main issue of this paper is to show how the real interoperability among almost the totality of ERTMS/ETCS suppliers is being successfully tested in Spain, presenting the behavior of lines in commercial operation as well as the new lines to be open during the next years. The success of ETCS real deployment is a clear demonstration that nowadays the rail interoperability is a fact, and this paper highlight the role played by the Spanish railways as pioneers in the real implementation of the system, solving the problems derived from the intervention of many suppliers, as well as for the non stability of the ETCS specifications. The paper will clearly differentiate the role played by the main Spanish actors who have actively contributed to this deployment: 1) ADIF (Spanish railways infrastructure Manager) in his role of planning, constructing, testing and exploiting the lines. 2) Renfe Operadora (Spanish public rail operator) by the acquisition of new HS trains with many different ETCS equipments and 3) Finally CEDEX Rail Interoperability lab, by means of testing all the EVCs at lab and solving the main interoperability issues appeared during the tests. This paper would like to point out the role played by the Railways General Directorate of the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transportation, as the System Authority of the lines implementing interoperable systems. 2.- The Spanish Infrastructure and Transport Strategic Plan 2005-2020 (PEIT) The Spanish High Speed Program is very ambitious and it is based on the Spanish Infrastructure and Transport Strategic Plan 2005-2020 (PEIT) that foreseen the construction of almost 10.000 km of new HS lines with a total investment of 108.766 M€ for railways in this period. This high investment is divided in four chapters: 1) High Speed Lines 83.450 M€, 2) Maintenance and improving of conventional network 18.000M€, 3) Levels crossing suppression 3.560 M€ and 4) New rolling stock 3.750 M€. Figure 1 shows the new high speed lines foreseen at PEIT. In this plan the new lines won’t be exclusively for passenger’s traffic but also for mixed freight-passengers traffic. Furthermore some of the old lines could be also dedicated to freight traffic, with the target of increasing the rate of freight transportation by railways, which at present time is very low in Spain (around 3%). The previous mentioned investment for railways represents a percentage of 44% of the total investment foreseen in Spain for Infrastructures and transport modernization in the period 2005-2020. Based on it, Spanish railways have clearly bet for implementing ERTMS/ETCS in this network. The first steps of this important challenge are detailed in this paper. HIGH PERFORMANCES RAIL NETWORK HORIZON 2020 Exclusively passengers Autonomic Communities Mixed network:Freight and passengers CURRENT CONVENTIONAl NETWORK Figure 1: New High Speed lines foreseen at PEIT(Spanish Infrastructure and Transport Strategic Plan 2005-2020). This plan includes both passengers and mixed traffic HSL. 3.- Interoperability in Spain. ERTMS In the frame of this ambitious High Speed Program, Spain decided in 2000 to install ERTMS in all the new lines with the target of promoting the open market among all the signaling systems suppliers. This high risk decision was adopted as the only possible solution to really migrate in the future to a real open rail market following the future railways model: rail network will be constructed and administrated by a public institution and rail operation will be done by both public and private companies. The installation of an unique, interoperable and public system as ETCS is the only way to open the access of new rail operators by avoiding the restriction caused by the installation of a private proprietary signaling system. Although the most impressive part of Spanish program are the new high speed lines, also the conventional lines will be renewed and in all of them the new ETCS system will be progressively installed replacing the old ASFA Spanish signaling system. Obviously this process will be very long, and although in some cases as Madrid and Barcelona commuter lines this replacement is going to be done in the near future, the whole network replacement will take a long time. Another important pending issue in Spain is the Iberian gauge (1665 mm) which is wider than the standard UIC gauge (1435 mm). All the new high speed lines are UIC gauge (including the first one Madrid-Seville in operation from 1992), but the rest of the network lines (including Portuguese network) are Iberian gauge, making more complex the achievement of a real interoperability inside the Iberian peninsula. By this reason Spain is one of the countries more advanced in the variable gauges trains, as well as in the installations that modify the train gauge. At least ten of these facilities are now in operation, allowing train transfers between both networks, and therefore facilitating the interoperability inside Spain. Trains CAF (S-120) and Talgo (S-130) are variable gauge trainsets, currently in operation at speeds up to 250 km/h. For all the previous reasons Spain is one of the countries which have clearly bet on the ETCS/ERTMS as the only way of achieving real interoperability. The decision of installing this signaling system in Spain is not only justified by the technical interoperability but also by the competitivity allowed by the installation of this system: ERTMS/ETCS is the only signaling system which allow the open competition among different suppliers, and therefore is the best solution to start the development of a so ambitious high speed network as the Spanish one. Spain, as it is clearly shown in this paper, has been the pioneer on installing both ERTMS levels 1 and 2 with different suppliers for track and train equipments. This way, started in 2000, has been plenty of obstacles: ETCS specifications migration from 2.0.0 to 2.2.2, different interpretation by different suppliers, a lot of change request continuously adding possible modifications, a lot of discussions to achieve agreements among competitors, new version 2.3.0.etc, etc… However, although the way has been hard, at the time being it can be said that interoperability for level 1 is a fact (trains in commercial operation are circulating with ETCS from May 2006 with a high rate of reliability and punctuality) and for level 2 it will be a reality in the first semester of 2008. 4.- ERTMS High Speed Lines in Spain: current and future situation ADIF as the Spanish Railways Administrator has the task of both building and managing not only the HSL but the totality of the national lines. Therefore ADIF has the mandate of the Spanish Government to build and put in operation the new lines foreseen by PEIT and shown in figure 1. Figure 2 shows the ADIF prediction up to 2015. Some of this lines are currently in commercial operation, some of then are in a very advanced status of construction, and the rest have been already started building. SPANISH HIGH SPEED LINES Commercial operation End 2007 End 2008 End 2009 End 2010 SistemaForeseen LZB 2010-2015 Dotted tine LZB System Continuous line ERTMS System Figure 2: ADIF High Speed Lines in commercial operation and lines foreseen up to 2015. However as this paper is mainly focused in the ETCS Interoperability the attention will be focused in the lines already in commercial operation, or in the lines under ETCS tests, where the problems arisen form the participation of many suppliers can be clearly shown. The following table (Table I) summarizes the current (January 2008) status of those lines: Line ETCS ETCS Level/ Length Current situation Future issues Trains Supplier Speed operating in this line Track equipment. High Speed Lines .UIC Gauge Madrid- Ansaldo 1/300Km/h 480 Km Commercial L2 in operation at first S-102, S-103 Lleida (CSEE) 2/350 Km/h Operation L1 May semester 2008 and S-120 2006 Lleida-Roda Thales 1/300Km/h 92 Km Commercial L2 in operation at the S-102, S-103 2/350 Km/h Operation L1 Dec end of 2008 and S-120 2006 Roda- Thales 1/300Km/h 80 Km Under final Tests Commercial S-102, S-103. Barcelona 2/350 Km/h operation: March 2008 Zaragoza- Alstom 1/200 Km/h 80 Km Commercial operation ERTMS L1 operation. S-102 and S- Huesca with ASFA Mid 2008 104 Madrid- Thales 1/300Km/h 180 Km Commercial L2 in Operation at the S-102 and S- Valladolid 2/350 Km/h Operation L1 end 2008. 130 December 2007 Córdoba- Invensys 1/300Km/h 155 Km Commercial L2 in Operation at the S-100, S-102 Málaga 2/350 Km/h Operation LSTM end 2008.