I don’t normally write about signalling because it bores me, but for this I’ll make an exception. Ever since the bobby with the red flag, signalling systems have increased in complexity and cost in the quest for increasing safety and/or reducing running costs.
ETCS (European Train Control System), and its enforcer ERTMS (European Rail Traffic Management System) were set up as a politically led concept essentially to move signalling from the trackside to the train. This must be a good move, because rolling stock engineers do things better and cheaper than anyone else. The signalling industry was quite happy to do the Eurocrats’ bidding and produced systems to meet the requirements, correctly specified to cope with the best, busiest, fastest lines in the world.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
All this is fine for main lines with lots of business and revenue, or subsidy. I’m sure eventually ETCS will come in on the East Coast main line, with shorter headways allowing more trains to join the queue to cross Welwyn viaduct.
Often a ride on secondary lines reveals the other end of the scale, with labour-intensive mechanical systems still in use because the capital expenditure to replace them doesn’t work for just a cou…
