A consortium led by French technology group Thales has been awarded a contract worth €100m from PKP Polish Lines to implement a European railway traffic management system (ERTMS).

The contract seeks to reduce running costs and improve the system’s efficiency on long cross-border distances and is in line with the modernisation of the Polish railway network.

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Work under the contract includes the implementation of an ERTMS solution, including an European train control system (ETCS) level two signalling system and a global system for mobile communications for rail (GSM-R) communications system, on two sections of the Warszawa-Lódz Line.

"Thales will improve safety and increase the maximum speed to 160kmph for passenger trains."

The ETCS is an automatic train control system, while the GSM-R is based on the GSM mobile telephony standard, and is used to exchange information between the ground and the train.

The Warszawa Zachodnia-Koluszki and Koluszki- Lódz Widzew sections have a combined length of approximately 125km.

Thales will improve safety and increase the maximum speed to 160kmph for passenger trains and 120kmph for freight trains, increasing the line capacity.

The company will also design and operate a local control centre in Skierniewice, under the agreed terms of the contract; the fourth to implement Thales’s ETCS system in Poland.

Thales has installed ETCS and GSM-R solutions on over 700km and 500km of the Polish railway network respectively.

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