Safer, faster travel for Spanish railway passengers

Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF), Spain’s state-owned railway infrastructure manager, is expanding and modernizing its Global System for Mobile Communications– Railway (GSM-R) infrastructure. The railway infrastructure manager is collaborating with Bombardier and Nokia Networks for the Valladolid-León and Venta de Baños-Burgos high-speed train lines. In a separate contract, ADIF is working directly with Nokia Networks for the La Robla-Pola de Lena route.

For both the projects, Nokia Networks is deploying an ERTMS* compliant GSM-R network that provides reliable voice communication between train drivers and the operation center. Additionally, the new radio network also enables faster deployment of ERTMS level 2 safety systems on high-speed train lines.

Under the turnkey contracts, Nokia Networks is supplying its Flexi Base Stations, fiber optic repeaters and Transcoder/Sub-Multiplexer (TCSM) as part of its GSM-R radio network equipment. Through its Global Services, the company is also providing network operations, network design, project execution, network implementation and maintenance services. Nokia’s geographically-redundant** NetAct network management system will be deployed to ensure network effeciency and stability for ADIF.

“With Nokia Networks as its key technology partner, Bombardier will lead the GSM-R deployment on the Valladolid-León and Venta de Baños–Burgos lines,” said Paolo Covoni, head of Bombardier Transportation’s Rail Control Solutions Division, Region South.

“With these projects, Nokia Networks has reiterated its focus on enabling next-generation communications solutions for railway networks in Spain and across the globe,” said Dirk Lewandowski, head of railway solutions at Nokia Networks. “By deploying our leading GSM-R technology, ADIF will ensure greater safety and speed for trains and passengers while increasing the overall capacity of railway operations.”

With 29 GSM-R networks deployed across more than 20 countries and serving over 70,000 km of railways globally, Nokia Networks is the market leader in GSM-R. The company has recently evolved its GSM-R solution to enable automated train control and help railway operators handle 40% more train traffic.

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Notes:
* European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the European Standard for Railway communication and Train Control systems that enables Railway undertakings to operate their high-speed trains in a Europe-wide interoperable environment, ensuring safety and highly reliable train operations for their passengers. The two main components of ERTMS are the European Train Control System (ETCS), a standard for in-cab train control, and GSM-R, the GSM mobile communications standard for railway operations.

** In order to fulfill the standard requirements for near 100% availability of a GSM-R network, train operators require a second back-up core network which immediately and seamlessly can take over all functions (in case of an outage situation) to ensure continuity of rail operations. Nokia’s core network elements are fully prepared for geo-redundancy with the roll out started in four European countries.