TESTS of on-board functionality of ETCS Baseline 3, conducted on an operational line fitted with Baseline 2 ETCS in Switzerland during the second half of April, have successfully demonstrated the backward compatibility of the two versions of software, says Siemens.

SPANISH infrastructure manager Adif this week confirmed that high-speed trains have finally been authorised to use ERTMS in commercial operation on the 165km Albacete – Alicante high-speed line, which was opened in June 2013.

With passenger traffic having topped one million passengers a day for the first time and the railfreight sector back in profit after decades of losses, Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) appears to be on a roll.

SPAIN's infrastructure manager Adif has awarded a €410m contract to Alstom to install ERTMS Level 2 signalling on 310km of high-speed line in northern Spain and to maintain the equipment for 20 years.

THE Dutch cabinet has approved a €2.5bn budget to install ERTMS on all trains by 2022 and on the busiest sections of the national rail network by 2030.

TURKISH State Railways (TCDD) has awarded a €10m contract to Thales to modernise the signalling and telecommunications at Eskisehir station.

While ERTMS is now widely regarded as a standard train control system and is being adopted by railways around the world, there is still considerable dissatisfaction with the technology and its implementation in Europe. David Briginshaw analyses the current situation.

SPANISH infrastructure manager Adif last week approved the tendering of a contract to design, install and maintain signaling and telecommunications equipment on the Madrid-Galicia high-speed rail line, with a total value of €640.8m.

CZECH signalling equipment supplier AŽD Praha, and CAF, Spain, have been accepted as full members of the Unisig Consortium, which was formed in 1999 by the European Commission (EC) with the task of drafting the technical specifications for ERTMS and ETCS.

HITACHI announced on January 14 that its onboard ETCS equipment has been fully certified by a notified body in accordance with the European Control Command and Signalling Technical Specification for Interoperability (CCS TSI).