GSM-R - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

GSM-R, Global System for Mobile Communications - Railway or GSM-Railway is an international wireless communication

Wireless

Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...

s standard for railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

and applications. A sub-system of European Rail Traffic Management System

European Rail Traffic Management System

The European Rail Traffic Management System is an initiative backed by the European Union to enhance cross-border interoperability and signalling procurement by creating a single Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems....

(ERTMS), it is used for communication between train

Train

A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...

and railway regulation control centers. The system is based on GSM and EIRENE - MORANE specifications which guarantee performance at speeds up to 500 km/h (310 mph), without any communication loss.

History

GSM-R is built on GSM technology, and benefits from the economies of scale of its GSM technology heritage, aiming at being a cost efficient digital replacement for existing incompatible in-track cable and analogue railway radio networks. Over 35 different such systems are reported to exist in Europe alone.

The standard is the result of over ten years of collaboration between the various Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an railway companies, with the goal of achieving interoperability using a single communication platform. GSM-R is part of the new European Rail Traffic Management System

European Rail Traffic Management System

(ERTMS) standard and carries the signalling information directly to the train driver, enabling higher train speeds and traffic density with a high level of safety.

The specifications were finalized in 2000, based on the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

-funded MORANE (Mobile Radio for Railways Networks in Europe) project. The specification is being maintained by the International Union of Railways

International Union of Railways

The UIC , or International Union of Railways, is an international rail transport industry body.- Brief history :The railways of Europe originated as separate concerns. There were many border changes after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Colonial railways were the responsibility of the...

project ERTMS. GSM-R has been selected by 38 countries across the world, including all member states of the European Union

European Union

, and countries in Asia, Eurasia and northern Africa.

GSM-R is a secure platform for voice and data communication between railway operational staff, including drivers, dispatchers, shunting team members, train engineers, and station controllers. It delivers features such as group calls (VGCS), voice broadcast (VBS), location-based connections, and call pre-emption in case of an emergency. This will support applications such as cargo tracking, video surveillance

Closed-circuit television

Closed-circuit television is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors....

in trains and at stations, and passenger information services.

GSM-R is typically implemented using dedicated base station

Base station

The term base station can be used in the context of land surveying and wireless communications.- Land surveying :In the context of external land surveying, a base station is a GPS receiver at an accurately-known fixed location which is used to derive correction information for nearby portable GPS...

towers close to the railway. The distance between the base stations are 7–15 km. This creates a high degree of redundancy and higher availability and reliability. The train maintains a circuit switched

Circuit switching

Circuit switching is a methodology of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the...

digital modem

Modem

A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...

connection to the train control centre at all times. This modem operates with higher priority than normal users (eMLPP). If the modem connection is lost, the train will automatically stop. In Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

the GSM-R network has between 3000 and 4000 base stations

Base Transceiver Station

A base transceiver station or cell site is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phones , WLL phones, computers with wireless internet connectivity, WiFi and WiMAX gadgets etc...

.
In the UK, over 14,000 km of GSM-R enabled railway is planned, with 280 km currently in operation. GSM-R cab radio for use in UK trains is currently being developed by Network Rail

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

and is undergoing trials in the Strathclyde and Glasgow areas of Scotland. It is currently in use on London Overground's East London Line, between Dalston Junction and New Cross Gate.

Upper system

GSM-R is one part of ERTMS

European Rail Traffic Management System

(European Rail Traffic Management System) which is composed of:

ETCS
European Train Control System
The European Train Control System is a signalling, control andtrain protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines.- History :...

(European Train Control System).
GSM-R.

Frequency band

In Europe, GSM-R uses a specific frequency band:

876 MHz — 880 MHz: used for data transmission (uplink)
921 MHz — 925 MHz: used for data reception (downlink)

However GSM-R can operate on a number of frequencies that are being used around the world

In China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

GSM-R occupies a 4 MHz wide range of the E-GSM band (900 MHz-GSM). In Australia GSM-R is being implemented using frequencies in the 1800MHz band.

The used modulation is GMSK

Minimum-shift keying

In digital modulation, minimum-shift keying is a type of continuous-phase frequency-shift keying that was developed in the late 1950s and 1960s. Similar to OQPSK, MSK is encoded with bits alternating between quadrature components, with the Q component delayed by half the symbol period. However,...

modulation (Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying). GSM-R is a TDMA

Time division multiple access

Time division multiple access is a channel access method for shared medium networks. It allows several users to share the same frequency channel by dividing the signal into different time slots. The users transmit in rapid succession, one after the other, each using its own time slot. This...

(“Time Division Multiple Access”) system. Data transmission is made of periodical TDMA frames (with a period of 4.615 ms), for each carrier frequency (physical channel). Each TDMA frame is divided in 8 time-slots, named logical channels (577 µs long, each time-slot), carrying 148 bit

Bit

A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information stored by a digital device or other physical system that exists in one of two possible distinct states...

s of information.

There are worries that LTE

3GPP Long Term Evolution

3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...

mobile communication will disturb GSM-R, since it has been given a frequency band rather close to GSM-R. This could cause ETCS disturbances, random emergency braking because of lost communications etc.

Current GSM-R version

The GSM-R standard specification is divided in two EIRENE specifications:

Functional Requirement Specification (FRS): the definition of higher lever functional requirements
System Requirement Specification (SRS): the definition of the technical solutions supporting the functional requirements

EIRENE defines the “Technical Specification for Interoperability” (TSI) as the set of mandatory specifications to be fulfilled to keep compatibility with other European networks; current TSI are FRS 7 and SRS 15. EIRENE also defines non-mandatory specifications, that are called “Interim version”, which defines extra features that are likely to become mandatory in the next TSI’s. Current Interim versions are FRS 7.1 and SRS 15.1.
The GSM-R specifications are fairly stable, the latest mandatory upgrade was in 2006. The complete timeline of GSM-R versions is :

December 2000: FRS 5/SRS 13, first version to be widely installed
October 2003: FRS 6/SRS 14
May 2006: FRS 7/SRS 15, current TSI
June 2010: FRS7.1/SRS 15.1, current Interim version; the main added features over TSI are shunting radio and ETCS data only radio

The current version of GSM-R can run on both R99 and R4 3GPP networks.

GSM-R uses

GSM-R permit new services and applications for mobile communications in several domains :

transmission of Long Line Public Address (LLPA) announcements to remote stations down the line
control and protection (Automatic Train Control/ETCS
European Train Control System
The European Train Control System is a signalling, control andtrain protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines.- History :...

) and ERTMS
European Rail Traffic Management System
The European Rail Traffic Management System is an initiative backed by the European Union to enhance cross-border interoperability and signalling procurement by creating a single Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems....

)
communication between train driver and regulation center,
communication of on-board working people
information sending for ETCS
European Train Control System
The European Train Control System is a signalling, control andtrain protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines.- History :...
communication between train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...

s, classification yard
Classification yard
A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill...

and rail tracks
Rail tracks
The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...

Main use

It is used to transmit data between trains and railway regulation centres with level 2 and 3 of ETCS

European Train Control System

The European Train Control System is a signalling, control andtrain protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines.- History :...

. When the train passes over a Eurobalise

Balise

A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an Automatic Train Protection system. The French word "balise" is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacon....

, it transmits its new position and its speed, then it receives back agreement (or disagreement) to enter the next track and its new maximum speed. In addition, trackside signals become redundant.

Other uses

Like other GSM devices, GSM-R equipment can transmit data and voice.
New GSM-R features for mobile communication are based on GSM, and are specified by EIRENE project.
Call features are:

PtP Call: Point-to-Point Call, the same type of call as a normal GSM call
VGCS: Voice Group Call System, quite similar to walkie-talkie communication
VBS: Voice Broadcast System, like a VGCS but only the call initiator can speak (the other are only listeners)
REC: Railways Emergency Call, it is a special VGCS with high priority dedicated to emergencies.
Priority control of all the different calls (PtP, VGCS, VBS and REC calls)

There are other additional features:

Functional Addressing, alias system to call someone registered on the GSM-R network, only by knowing the temporary function user (engine driver of train such-and-such, …)
Location Dependent Addressing, routing system to call the most appropriate train controller regarding the current train position by dialling a pre-defined short code
Shunting mode, when users work on the tracks.

GSM-R features

VGCS (Voice Group Call Service)

VGCS allows a great number of users to participate in the same call. This feature imitates the analogue PMR

Professional Mobile Radio

Professional mobile radio are field radio communications systems which use portable, mobile, base station, and dispatch console radios...

(Private Mobile Radio) group call with the PTT key (Push-to-Talk).

Three kinds of users are defined: the Talker, the Listener and the Dispatcher. The talker can become a listener by releasing the PTT key and a listener becomes a talker by pressing the PTT key.

One advantage of VGCS compared to multi-party calls (the GSM conference call feature) is the spectrum efficiency. Indeed, when many users are in the same cell they will use only one frequency for all listeners and two frequencies for the talker (as in point-to-point call). In a multi-party call, one timeslot is dedicated to each user. The second advantage compared to multi-party calls is that it is not necessary to know which mobiles are to take part in the call. A VGCS call is established on a purely geographic basis, subject to a mobile having previously enabled reception of the group concerned.

VBS (Voice Broadcast Service)

VBS is a broadcast group call: this means that compared to VGCS, only the initiator of the call can speak. The others who join the call can only be listeners. This kind of call is mainly used to broadcast recorded messages or to make announcements.

REC (Railway Emergency Call)

REC is a group call, or VGCS, dedicated to urgency. It is a higher priority call (REC priority is level 0 — see below : eMLPP)

Multi-Level Precedence and Pre-emption Service (eMLPP)

This defines the user’s priority. The different priority levels are:

A and B: Highest priority levels (not used by GSM-R networks)
0: Highest priority levels for ASCI and normal calls (mainly used for REC calls)
1: Lower priority than level 0
2: Lower priority than level 1
3: Lower priority than level 2
4: Lowest priority level (default priority, assigned to Point-to-Point calls)

An Auto-Answering feature with a timer is also available for calls with priority 0, 1 and 2.

Functional number management

Functional numbering
- Allows to call an MS by its function: driver of the train xxx , …
- It uses:
  - USSD and Follow Me
  - UUS1 (for number display)

Location dependent addressing
- Establishes a call from an MS to (usually) a fixed subscriber/dispatcher performing a function in the area where the MS is located.

End Call Confirmation

End Call Confirmation feature is only available for highest priority (Priority level 0) group calls (VGCS) and broadcast calls (VBS) (see eMLPP).

It consists of an end call report which sent by all MSs (mobile stations) which joined the high priority call (initiator included). This report informs about:

Call type
Call duration
MS Identity
End call cause Normal, ended by user, MS power off by user, power off due to low battery, …)
…

If the report can't be sent (MS power off by user or power off due to low battery), the MS will try again (several times if needed) to send the report at the next power on.

Shunting mode

Shunting mode is the term used to describe the application that will regulate and control user access to shunting communications.

A Link Assurance Signal (LAS) is provided in order to give reassurance to the driver that the radio link is working.

Direct mode

Direct mode is the walkie-talkie mode (mobiles station talking to each other without the network) and has been proposed in Eirene, however it has never been in application since being based on analogue radio.

Sagemcom claims to have developed a GSM direct mode, not currently recognised in the GSM-R specification, and has no frequency allocation.

GSM-R market groups

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

ÖBB-IKT GmbH

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

Department of Transport Victoria

Metro Trains Melbourne

Metro Trains Melbourne is the current franchise operator of the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Australia. Metro Trains Melbourne is a joint venture led by Hong Kong based MTR Corporation together with John Holland Group and United Group Rail .Metro Trains Melbourne operates a fleet of 381...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Australia

Australia

RailCorp

Rail Corporation New South Wales

Rail Corporation New South Wales is a statutory authority of the New South Wales government. RailCorp owns, operates and maintains the Sydney suburban and interurban rail network which is marketed under the CityRail brand; in addition to operating rural passenger services under the CountryLink...

RailCorp

Rail Corporation New South Wales

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Germany

Germany

DB Netz

DB Netz AG is a 100%-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn is a railway infrastructure provider, which owns and operates a majority of the German railway system . The company was established in the course of the second stage of the German rail reform as a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn...

DBAG

Deutsche Bahn

Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

Infrabel

Infrabel is a Belgian government-owned public limited company. It was created on 1 January 2005 from the split of the once unitary SNCB/NMBS. It builds, maintains and upgrades the Belgian railway network, makes its capacity available to railway companies, and handles the train traffic control. ...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| China

China

China Ministry of Railway

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Czech Republic

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

Správa železniční dopravní cesty

Správa železniční dopravní cesty is the national railway infrastructure manager in the Czech Republic. Its main customers include passenger train operator České dráhy and its cargo subsidiary ČD Cargo...

ČD

Ceské dráhy

České dráhy or Czech Railways is the main railway operator of the Czech Republic. In 2010 its consolidated revenues reached CZK 41.0 bn...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

ADIF

RENFE

Renfe Operadora is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1668-mm "Iberian gauge" and 1435-mm "European gauge" networks of the Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF .- History :The name RENFE is derived from that of the former Spanish National...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

RHK

VR Group

VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| France

France

RFF

Réseau Ferré de France

Réseau Ferré de France , , owns and maintains the French national railway network. The trains are operated by SNCF, the national railway company, but due to European Union Directive 91/440, the French government was required to separate train operations from the railway infrastructure.Unlike other...

SNCF

The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

Network Rail Limited

Network Rail

Network Rail is the government-created owner and operator of most of the rail infrastructure in Great Britain .; it is not responsible for railway infrastructure in Northern Ireland...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

OSE S.A.

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

Indian Railways

Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Italy

Italy

RFI

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana

Rete Ferroviaria Italiana is an Italian company fully owned by Ferrovie dello Stato . RFI is the owner of Italy's railway network, it sets train paths, provides signalling, provides maintenance and other services for the railway network...

Trenitalia

Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy. Trenitalia is owned by Ferrovie dello Stato, itself owned by the Italian Government. It was created in 2000 following the EU directive on the deregulation of rail transport.-Passenger transport:...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

JBV

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

NS Railinfratrust

The Railinfratrust Company is the owner of the Dutch railtracks. ProRail B.V. is the part of RIT that takes care of maintenance and extension of the national railway network infrastructure, of allocating rail capacity, and of traffic control. NS Railinfratrust is a government agency but is not the...

Nederlandse Spoorwegen

Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...

Thales Group

The Thales Group is a French electronics company delivering information systems and services for the aerospace, defense, transportation and security markets...

together with Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a global data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It is a joint venture between Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany...

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

Trafikverket

Statens Järnvägar

The Swedish State Railways or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board , is a former government agency responsible for operating the state railways in Sweden....

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

Siemens together with SBB Telecom

>-bgcolor="#90FF80"
| Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

(Pilot site) >

HŽ

Croatian Railways

Croatian Railways is the national railway company of Croatia. It was formed after the dissolution of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav Railways.Croatia is a member of the International Union of Railways . The UIC Country Code for Croatia is 78.-Railway network:...

>-bgcolor="#FFDF80"
| Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

(Pilot site; contract to be awarded by mid-2012)

PKP PLK

PKP, Polskie Linie Kolejowe is a company of the PKP Group and is responsible for maintenance of rail tracks, conducting the trains across country, scheduling train timetables and management of railway land....

PKP S.A.

Polish State Railways

is the dominant railway operator in Poland.The company was founded when the former state-owned operator was divided into several units based on the requirements laid down by the European Union...

>-bgcolor="#FFDF80"
|Slovakia

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

(Pilot site)

ŽSR

China

China Railways

China Railways is the national railway operator of the People's Republic of China, under the Chinese Ministry of Railways.China Railways operates rail commuter and freight transport via several smaller companies....

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

Banedanmark

Banedanmark is a Danish company responsible for maintenance and traffic control of most of the Danish railway network...

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

VPE

MÁV

Hungarian State Railways

Hungarian State Railways is the Hungarian national railway company, with divisions "MÁV Start Zrt" and "MÁV Cargo Zrt" ....

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

CIÉ

CIE

-Organizations:* Cambridge International Examinations, an international examination board* Cleveland Institute of Electronics, a private technical and engineering educational institution — the International Commission on Illumination...

IÉ

Iarnród Éireann

Iarnród Éireann is the national railway system operator of Ireland. Established on 2 February 1987, it is a subsidiary of Córas Iompair Éireann . It operates all internal intercity, commuter and freight railway services in the Republic of Ireland, and, jointly with Northern Ireland Railways, the...

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

CFL

Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois is the national railway company of Luxembourg. In 2005, the company carried approximately 14.1 million passengers and 11.7 million tonnes of goods...

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

RŽD

Russian Railways

The Russian Railways , is the government owned national rail carrier of the Russian Federation, headquartered in Moscow. The Russian Railways operate over of common carrier routes as well as a few hundred kilometers of industrial routes, making it the second largest network in the world exceeded...

>-bgcolor="#FF8080"
| Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

AZP

SŽ

Slovenske železnice

Slovenian Railways is the state railway company of Slovenia, created in 1991 from the Ljubljana division of the former Yugoslav Railways after the breakup of Yugoslavia.Slovenia is a member of the International Union of Railways...

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| USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

US-DOT

United States Department of Transportation

The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, and began operation on April 1, 1967...

Source : UIC (23 May 2006)

The network operators : The companies Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a global data networking and telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It is a joint venture between Nokia of Finland and Siemens of Germany...

, Huawei

Huawei

Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...

, and Kapsch

Kapsch

The Kapsch Group, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, is an international Road Telematics, Information Technology and Telecommunications Company. The corporate group, with more than 4,000 employees worldwide generated total revenue of € 829.9 Million as of March 2011 and has invested € 55.8 Million ...

(formerly Nortel

Nortel

Nortel Networks Corporation, formerly known as Northern Telecom Limited and sometimes known simply as Nortel, was a multinational telecommunications equipment manufacturer headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada...

) are the main suppliers of the GSM-R infrastructure.
Dispatch and control centre solutions: Siemens Mobility,NEC Portugal, Frequentis, Wenzel Elektronik, Hörmann Funkwerk Kölleda GmbH and Ascom (Switzerland) Ltd.
The terminal manufacturers

Handset manufacturer

Sagemcom is the main GSM-R handset supplier, followed byAJA Solutions Selex Communications, Triorail, and Huawei

Huawei

Huawei is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China...

Cab radio manufacturer

Selex Communications, Siemens Mobility, NEC Portugal, Alstom

Alstom

Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...

, Center Systems and Hörmann Funkwerk Kölleda GmbH are the main suppliers. Hoermann Funkwerk Kolleda (formerly Kapsch

Kapsch

) and Sagemcom mainly provide the GSM-R core of these cab radios.

Railways using GSM-R

A fully functional GSM-R system is being trialed on the North Clyde Line

North Clyde Line

The North Clyde Line is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by First ScotRail, on behalf of Transport Scotland...

in Scotland from 2007. For some years before these trials commenced however, GSM-R has been in use for voice-only purposes (known as the 'Interim Voice Radio System' (IVRS) ) in some locations where axle counter

Axle counter

An axle counter is a device on a railway that detects the passing of a train in lieu of the more common track circuit. A counting head is installed at each end of the section, and as each axle passes the head at the start of the section, a counter increments...

s are used for train detection, for example parts of the West Coast Main Line

West Coast Main Line

The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...

(WCML) between Crewe and Wembley. Britain’s GSM-R network should be fully operational by 2013 at a cost of £1.2 billion. This cost though does not include the WCML.

The first train (390 034 on the 09.15 Manchester Piccadilly service to London Euston) to use GSM-R on the south end of the West Coast Main Line ran on 27 May 2009. This is the first vehicle to run in passenger service with GSM-R outside of the Strathclyde trial.
On 2nd Sept 09 the Rugby to Stoke section went live.
Network Rail has fitted out a test train at Derby it purchased for RSV testing of the GSM-R network. The train is formed from ex Gatwick Express stock. At a cost of £5.9 million, this custom-built machine known as the RSV (Radio Signal Verification) train, has already started monitoring the Newport Synergy scheme and the Cambrian Line
Cambrian Line
The Cambrian Line is a railway from Shrewsbury to Welshpool, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. The railway runs first through the central part of Wales and then along the coast of Cardigan Bay....

.
The Cambrian Line
Cambrian Line
The Cambrian Line is a railway from Shrewsbury to Welshpool, Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. The railway runs first through the central part of Wales and then along the coast of Cardigan Bay....

ERTMS
European Rail Traffic Management System
The European Rail Traffic Management System is an initiative backed by the European Union to enhance cross-border interoperability and signalling procurement by creating a single Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems....

– Pwllheli
Pwllheli
Pwllheli is a community and the main market town of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, north-western Wales. It has a population of 3,861, of which a large proportion, 81 per cent, are Welsh speaking. Pwllheli is the place where Plaid Cymru was founded. It is the birthplace of Albert Evans-Jones -...

to Harlech
Harlech
Harlech is a town and seaside resort in Gwynedd, within the historical boundaries of Merionethshire in northwest Wales. Lying on Tremadog Bay and within the Snowdonia National Park, it has a population of 1,952, of whom 59% speak Welsh...

Rehearsal commenced on 13 February 2010 and successfully finished on 18 February 2010. The driver familiarisation and practical handling stage of the Rehearsal has provided an excellent opportunity to monitor the use of GSM-R voice in operation on this route.
The first train departed Pwllheli at 0853hrs in ERTMS
European Rail Traffic Management System
The European Rail Traffic Management System is an initiative backed by the European Union to enhance cross-border interoperability and signalling procurement by creating a single Europe-wide standard for train control and command systems....

Level 2 Operation with GSM-R voice being used as the only means of communication between the driver and the signaller.

In France, the first commercial railway route opened with full GSM-R coverage is the LGV Est européenne

LGV Est

The LGV Est européenne is an extension to the French high-speed rail network, connecting currently Vaires-sur-Marne and Baudrecourt , and later Vaires-sur-Marne and Vendenheim . , it is the newest high-speed line in France and still under construction, with of a planned in service...

linking Paris Gare de l'Est

Gare de l'Est

is one of the six large SNCF termini in Paris. It is in the 10th arrondissement, not far from the Gare du Nord, facing the Boulevard de Strasbourg, part of the north-south axis of Paris created by Baron Haussmann...

to Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

. It was opened on the 10th of June 2007.

On Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 0643, the first high speed train run on it was the ICE, the high speed train
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...

from the German passenger operator : DB
Deutsche Bahn
Deutsche Bahn AG is the German national railway company, a private joint stock company . Headquartered in Berlin, it came into existence in 1994 as the successor to the former state railways of Germany, the Deutsche Bundesbahn of West Germany and the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany...

. It linked the Gare de l'Est
Gare de l'Est
is one of the six large SNCF termini in Paris. It is in the 10th arrondissement, not far from the Gare du Nord, facing the Boulevard de Strasbourg, part of the north-south axis of Paris created by Baron Haussmann...

in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

to Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....

(Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

).
On the same day, 0715, it was the opportunity of the TGV POS
SNCF TGV POS
The TGV POS is a TGV train built by French manufacturer Alstom which is operated by the French national rail company, the SNCF in France's high-speed rail lines. It was originally ordered by the SNCF for use on the new LGV Est, which was put into service in 2007...

, the last generation high speed train from the French operator, SNCF
SNCF
The SNCF , is France's national state-owned railway company. SNCF operates the country's national rail services, including the TGV, France's high-speed rail network...

. It linked Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

to Paris (Gare de l'Est).

(Réf. SNCF - Paris AFP, 10 June 2007)

In Norway, the GSM-R network was opened on all lines on 1 January 2007.

In The Netherlands, there is coverage on all the lines and the old system called Telerail was abandoned in favour of GSM-R in 2006.

As of 2008, in Italy more than 9000 km of railway lines are served by the GSM-R infrastructure: this number includes both ordinary and high speed lines, as well as more than 1000 km of tunnels. Roaming agreements with other Italian mobile operators allow coverage of lines not directly served by GSM-R. Roaming agreements have also been set up with French and Swiss railway companies and it is planned to extend them to other countries.

External links

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