Automated metros

[ozbob]

Observatory of automated metros --> Barcelona welcomes the automated 20-km Line 9 South

Barcelona's metro L9 South became operational on February 12. This new stretch of L9 is nearly 20 km long, making it the longest automated metro line in Europe. It represents a 20% growth in kilometres for the city's network, which now also reaches the 25% mark in automated lines.

L9 South features 15 stations, all accessible to the disabled, and connects Zona Universitària to Terminal 1 of Barcelona-El Prat Airport in 32 minutes with a train frequency rate of 7 minutes on weekdays. TMB expects to cut that frequency to less than 4 minutes for partial itineraries during peak demand by adding the necessary trains.

The new metro line connects Barcelona's southern metropolitan area (industrial parks, universities, Gran Vía trade fair grounds and two airport terminals) and its citizens to the city's modern rail network for daily commute.

The launch of the L9 South implies that 30.5 km of the metro network will now work with the highest grade of automation (GoA4), where starting and stopping, operation of doors and handling of emergencies are fully automated without any on-train staff. The line also has an advanced passenger information system automatically connected to trains.

Stations are equipped with platform screen doors.

The demand for this new metro stretch is estimated to be 23 million annual trips. The Catalan government, developer and owner of the infrastructure, invested €2,900 million.

[ozbob]

Twitter

UITP ‏@UITPnews

Join #UITP for a three day training course on #automated #metros in May - #Copenhagen http://bit.ly/1W9MNzY 

[#Metro]

Interesting parent website http://metroautomation.org/automation-essentials/

Graham Quirks metro would be obsolete on opening day. Fully automatic would be initially more expensive but would be the best mass transit mover in the 100 year claimed lifespan. And something like a metro is a long term investment.

[ozbob]

LD, a metro for Brisbane is a great thing. Quirk's brain fart is not, I agree.

We need a proper networked, auto, high service, high frequency, metro, around the clock.

This will happen. I expect I will be long dead, but at least I have made a claim hey?

[ozbob]

UITP forecasts 2200km of fully-automated metros worldwide by 2025 https://t.co/3GIglOLBGO pic.twitter.com/3wHx2t8BUa

— IRJ (@railjournal) July 20, 2016

[ozbob]

By 2025, there will be an estimated 2,200km of #automated metro infrastructure in operation https://t.co/ELwUtBf6MN pic.twitter.com/oz8SHxVAVN

— UITP (@UITPnews) September 9, 2016

[ozbob]

The Globe and Mail --> Signals from the future: How the TTC's subway auto-pilot will streamline your commute

On Toronto's Yonge-University-Spadina line, upgrades to a decades-old signalling system could get more trains running in less time by 2019. Oliver Moore explains how it works and looks behind the scenes at the mammoth renovation

Yonge-Bloor station at evening rush hour is often overcrowded, but the TTC hopes a new automatic train-control system will help to change that. The system is currently being installed in phases along the Yonge-University-Spadina line.

Press the yellow button and the 200-tonne train starts to roll. It drives itself, double-checking its position along the way and keeping to the correct speed for each stretch of track. At the next station it slows itself, then comes smoothly to a stop.

It really is that easy.

The Toronto Transit Commission is in the midst of a transformational shift to automatic train operation, a $563-million project that promises greater safety, improved efficiency and increased passenger capacity. When it starts to roll out this fall, the system – which will still include on-board staff in case of emergencies – will allow the agency to run many more trains per hour.

The new system is "like autopilot on an aircraft," said project manager Pete Tomlin, a veteran of similar signal upgrade jobs in London and Hong Kong.

In the best-case scenario, TTC staff say, they could run about 32 trains per hour when the system is fully operational. That remains an ambitious goal – and will depend on time spent in stations, crew changes and turnaround times at the ends of the line – but one that would represent a huge increase over the current maximum of about 25.

Getting to that future is a mammoth task, made more difficult by the fact that the work has to be done around the demands of the country's busiest subway line. Finishing the first phase of the new system – the stretch from Dupont to Yorkdale stations that is being done now – requires 262 beacons, 23 signals, 78 kilometres of cable and 3,150 splices. And all of it has to be installed when the subway is closed.

Getting it installed and dialled in perfectly is a long process – and the reason for the ongoing series of weekend subway shutdowns on the Yonge-University-Spadina (YUS) line. During one of these shutdowns earlier this spring, The Globe and Mail got a rare chance to go behind the scenes to see the operation.

Expected completion dates of signal upgrades, by phase



Once past the doors of the shuttered section of subway, it was a beehive of activity. With all they needed to keep working underground for hours – there was even a small espresso machine – the crews deployed technology ranging from lowly strips of duct tape to highly sophisticated computing power.

By the time the system rolls out, the trains will look – to riders at least – like the current set-up. All of the minutiae will be fine-tuned before any paying customers get on board.

The TTC's current signalling system is called fixed-block. It divides the tunnel into sections and requires that each train keep at least one full section of tunnel between it and the next train. That large buffer keeps trains well apart, which reduces the number that can be put through the tunnel.

FIXED BLOCK SIGNALLING

In a fixed block system, the track is divided into "blocks." The status of these blocks is shown along the track using signals similar to traffic lights


How it works



Green means the block ahead is not occupied and the operator may proceed

Red means the block ahead is occupied. The axle needs to be in the block for the entire block to be considered occupied. Trainstop stops a train by raising a trip arm if it fails to stop at a red signal

This system cannot determine the exact location of a train within a block, so additional blocks must be used as a buffer zone to ensure safe distance between trains

The following train must proceed slowly or stop until the two or more blocks ahead becomes clear, leading to large gaps between trains and slow service

The new system is called communications-based train control (CBTC) and establishes a variable buffer around each train – longer at high speed, shorter when moving slowly. When a train is motionless, the one behind will creep up to within 70 metres. But when moving at regular speed, they will keep a preordained 397 metres apart.

This variability lets them run more closely together while still keeping the requisite distance for safety. It is this new system that allows automatic train operation.

COMMUNICATIONS-BASED TRAIN CONTROL (CBTC)

CBTC systems allow for trains to operate closer to one another without increasing risk by allowing them to communicate their precise location on a track


how it works



The train's location is determined by the ATC beacons backed up by axle counters along the tracks, and onboard controllers . As a train passes over a beacon, the onboard controller communicates with it via antenna . From there, Data Communications System antennas transmit the information about speed, location and braking distance to the Trackside Radio Equipment

The information is passed from the Trackside Radio Equipment to TTC's Transit Control Centre where all train movements throughout the system are coordinated

Data from each train is processed by the central computers; movement authorities and limits for each train are issued by the central computers which allow for real-time adjustments of speed and braking to allow for safe train separation while allowing trains to get closer to each other. This equates to increased capacity and thus reduced wait times between trains.

New York is currently undergoing protracted efforts to upgrade to CBTC. London has recently been doing the same, a process that will allow the Victoria line to operate as many as 36 trains per hour.

Although the TTC won't hit that number, the new system promises to add capacity while whittling away at signal-related delays. Signal problems coming during rush hour, when the system is heavily loaded, are particularly galling. They affect tens of thousands of people and have a knock-on effect across the broader city. On the YUS line, such signal-related delays averaged about 800 minutes in each of the past five years.

Even though the full benefits of the new technology won't be seen until it has been installed on the whole length of the YUS, Mike Palmer, the TTC's chief operating officer, said that having it even in portions will allow the subway to run more efficiently. A similar upgrade on the Bloor-Danforth line is expected to follow but is currently unfunded.

The agency plans to start rolling out automatic train operation within months, including on the new subway extension to Vaughan. The first phase of the work is scheduled to be done by September, with the whole line fitted with the new technology by 2019.

Installation and testing are usually invisible to outsiders. On the same day as The Globe's visit, three young women who somehow found their way into a closed subway station early Saturday morning, after what appeared to have been a long night, were quickly sent packing. For everyone else, the only outward sign of anything unusual was that motorists driving on the Allen Expressway might have registered the slightly surreal sight of a train running northbound on the southbound track.

But the system is abuzz with activity during these times. A large crew was at work in the closed section of subway line, a group of them in charge of running test trains.

Key tasks included checking how precisely the trains stopped – which is where the duct tape came in handy – how well they stuck to the correct speed and how long they took to travel from station to station. Subsequent trials have included "rabbit tests" – running two trains in quick succession, one behind the other.

These trains look the same as the ones with which regular riders are familiar. Under the skin, though, the way they run is going much more high-tech. Near the front, on the wall separating the operator from the passengers, a nondescript panel hides the train's nerve centre. It is the "car-borne controller" that gets the signal when the yellow button is pushed and starts the train moving. It deals with all the systems on the trains and communicates with the outside world.

As the train rolls down the tunnel, it counts each wheel revolution, allowing the train to measure its progress along the track. Every 200 to 400 metres is a beacon that the train recognizes as it rolls over it, confirming it is where it thinks it is. Speed is regulated by the computer, trying to match as closely as possible the programmed instructions for that specific part of the system.

"There are far fewer moving parts at track level," Mr. Palmer said. "We're installing less equipment. There's more redundancy, there's more resilience."

At the same time, information is flowing between the train and the nearest of 19 rooms scattered through the system, bouncing between a pair of antennae on the train and others in the tunnels. And signals are also pinging back and forth between these rooms and the centrally located zone control operation, which keeps watch on all the trains in the system to make sure they're in the right place relative to each other.

"You have one desk that will be able to signal the whole line. So we load the schedule, and if nothing else happened and every train was on time in turn, the man or woman sitting here would do nothing," Mr. Palmer said in the zone control room.

"As soon as we deviate from the norm, this person will intervene. They can stop the train [remotely], they can [emergency brake] the train. If we want to turn a train ... we say to the database, turn this train at St. Clair West. So when that train gets to St. Clair West it [goes], 'Oh, I'm turning here.'"

The whole Yonge-University-Spadina line is due to be fitted with the new technology by 2019.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/Schrinner/status/882255428347809793


FYI > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Rapid_Transit_%28Singapore%29

[#Metro]

Victoria Line Opened (1968)


Last 1967 Victoria Line Train

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/XHNews/status/979619679760105473

[achiruel]

A pity Brisbane doesn't get a proper (automated) metro!

[BrizCommuter]

A pity Brisbane doesn't get a proper (automated) metro!

If Brisbane were to ever to get one, an East-West route would be the most optimal route at the moment - Darra-Centenary Suburbs-Kenmore-Indro-UQ-West End-South Brisbane-CBD-Valley-Teneride-Bulimba-Northshore Hamilton-?Airport. Trouts Rd would be higher priority for $$$ first.

[SurfRail]

^ I'd love to see that combined with redevelopment of Doomben or Eagle Farm (pick one) and a station integrated right into it.

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railjournal/status/981202238189260800

[verbatim9]

A pity Brisbane doesn't get a proper (automated) metro!

If Brisbane were to ever to get one, an East-West route would be the most optimal route at the moment - Darra-Centenary Suburbs-Kenmore-Indro-UQ-West End-South Brisbane-CBD-Valley-Teneride-Bulimba-Northshore Hamilton-?Airport. Trouts Rd would be higher priority for $$$ first.

^^Yes! That mass transit corridor would be the best thing to happen to the Brisbane municipality in years.

UQ can be an interchange to travel to the east side of Brisbane without the need of transfering closer to the city centre.

[achiruel]

So how would one route such a thing? Entirely underground? Where would you stop? I tried to make a map based on the description, but it seems to have far too many corners in it. I'm sure someone will come up with a far better one!

[#Metro]

<fantasy>

Generally I do not support new metro construction in Brisbane given the current state of the existing buses and trains.

However...

If Brisbane ever gets to the stage of having a metro (meaning more medium density development and buses that will feed the stations with passengers so that trains can run every 10 minutes all day)...

... PLUS all the other things being fixed on our existing commuter rail network like ATP, single track, low platforms, DOO...

THEN....

Metro Line 1:

Remove the Springfield line from the QR Network. Before Springfield Line connects to Ipswich Line move the line off and along the Centenary Motorway through the Centenary Suburbs.

Run the metro broadly parallel with the M5 to underneath Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. Metro runs into the QR alignment on its approach
to the CBD.

Widen the rail corridor to allow 2 new Metro tracks beside the IPS line. Remove Taringa station from the QR network, rebuild as a metro station only.

Metro dives on approach to Toowong Station, new station beneath Toowong Shopping Centre. Elevators could take passengers from the existing QR station to the new metro station underneath.

Metro travels underneath Brisbane river into West End. Interchange under South Brisbane Station.

Metro continues through CBD (with station placed near Riverside) through the Valley to Newstead.

Metro then pops up in Mayne Rail yard. Possibility for stabling yard here. Metro loads on to the Ferny Grove Line (which is also removed from the QR network).

Possibility for stabling at either Ferny Grove or Springfield ends in addition to Mayne.

Metro recycles existing QR corridors, reducing cost and speeding up time to opening. Similar to how Sydney Trains Epping-Chatswood line is being repurposed in NSW. Also means that slots are freed up on the QR network which will allow more services to be allocated to other lines.

Metro Line 2:

Metro Line 2 is more difficult and has more uncertainty about the route.

Eastern Busway not built. Metro originates outside Westfield Carindale, broadly follows Eastern Busway alignment to CBD. If cheaper alignment is required, a rolling cut and cover underneath Old Cleveland Road could be considered. It should be possible to do this given the existence of other parallel main roads such as Chatsworth/Winstanley St and Stanley Rd/Bennets Road.

On approach to Stones Corner, metro dives underground (area above is flood prone). Interchange at Buranda. PA Hospital, Boggo Road and then over to UQ Lakes and possibly another station in St Lucia (flood proofed).

The trick here is to curve the metro under Guyatt Park so that the alignment is then turned under the Brisbane River into West End.

Tracks shared with Metro 1 into the CBD and through the Valley.

At Mayne, metro pops up. New tracks laid parallel to QR tracks.

Albion becomes a combined QR and Metro station.

Metro stops at Woolwin. Eagle Junction.

Airport Line removed from QR network. Metro loads into the Airport Line (line likely requires duplication).

Metro stops at DFO Skygate.

Metro terminates at Brisbane Airport.

</fantasy>

[ozbob]

https://twitter.com/railjournal/status/1178692403944968195