RZD, Finmeccanica agree on signaling projects

In Rome last week, Russian Railways (RZD) President Vladimir Yakunin and Finmeccanica CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) “to jointly develop, test, introduce, replicate, and service in Russia modern systems for train control, signaling, automation, and transport safety, using microprocessor and satellite technology.”

The MOU calls for “creating a new train control system based on theITARUS-ATC system, and further replicating the system; creating, on the basis of the ITARUS-ATC system, integrated microprocessor-based dispatch centralization complexes with broadened functional capabilities, using satellite navigation, a digital channel, and state-of-the-art diagnostic systems; creating, with the use of innovative solutions developed by the partners, railway automation and telemechanics parts and devices to improve the efficiency and safety of the systems in use; creating and replicating the latest transport safety systems, in particular intelligent systems and risk assessment systems.”

In April 2009 in Moscow, NIIAS (a subsidiary of RZD) and Ansaldo STS S.p.A (a subsidiary of Finmeccanica) signed a contract to install the ITARUS-ATS system on an experimental railway section. The Sochi-Adler line of Russia’s North Caucasus Railway was chosen as the pilot track.

As described by RZD, “The ITARUS-ATS project is a fundamentally new train control and safety management system based on cutting-edge Russian and Italian technology. The Russian ABTC-M automatic blocking computer technology and the integrated locomotive safety device KLUB-U will feature as components of the system. The Russian part of the project includes the application of GLONASS/GPS satellite navigation technology, which is already in use in over 12,000 locomotives and self-propelled railcars in Russia.”