Monitoring High-Speed Train Manoeuvres with Collision Warning System

The train collision warning system has been installed on high-speed trains for the first time ever, showing it’s huge potential for any kind of train installation.

During a recent measurement campaign performed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) together with Trenitalia in Italy, the collision warning system was used to monitor certain manoeuvres while driving with two Frecciarossa high-speed trains through the night with a speed of up to 300km/h each. Unusual for and very much appreciated by the train drivers, they could see the location and other information about the other train way before in visibility range.

In fact, the award-winning direct train-to-train communication subsystem of the collision warning system achieved a new range record, that is 39.5km while driving directly, with no base-stations or any kind of repeaters involved!

One of the most interesting manoeuvres performed was a crossing of the high-speed trains on parallel tracks with over 250km/h each, which is a relative speed of more than 500km/h. It has been verified that the collision warning system’s radio link worked stable also at this high speed and the trains could see each other using this link way before one of the other direct train-to-train radio links under test.

Although the collision warning system was designed primarily for lower speed profiles, it worked out very well for high-speed, too. Thus, mission accomplished!