Positive Train Control
PTC for freight trains in Mozambique
DETAILS OF THE PROJECT
PTC or Positive Train Control is a wireless railway control system that provides line safety through train spacing, observation of speed restrictions, track worker safety and other precautionary functions. It merges safety and low cost thanks to control tower and OBC monitoring, thus reducing the number of required elements on the line.
It is used to link the mining town of Moatize and the port of Nacala through the so-called Nacala Corridor, with a staggering 912,5 km/567 mi in the main line and two branch lines of 496 km/308 mi and 263km/163.5 mi.
Thanks to PTC, almost no elements are necessary on track, since almost every logic is included in the on-board equipment and the OCC, thus reducing the total cost of the infrastructure.
It is a reactive and predictive system which forecasts future conditions, even taking control of the train if necessary.
Also, it is adaptive to every kind of telecommunication system, such as TETRA, Satélite, LTE, 3G, etc. This allows permanent communication, even in the event of one of the elements of the network losing signal.
- 100 stations and 1672 km/1039 mi of track.
- Mining operations in Moatize have increased after the implementation of the project.
Country | Mozambique
Sector | Freight trains
Work Done
OBC testing, integration among the diverse railway subsystems, specification, validation and implementation of Operational Control Centre (OCC) testing, PTC engineering tool development, development of testing simulator.
RELEVANT DATA
- 100 stations and 1672 km of track.
- Exploitation operations of the Moatize mine have increased due to the project.
WHAT DOES THE PTC SYSTEM PROVIDE?
- Safety. It was widely implemented following a railway accident in California due to a human error that is rectifiable through PTC.
- Low cost: Few track elements are required.
- Interoperability: compatible with diverse communication networks.
TEAMS INVOLVED
R&D
The PTC team is multidisciplinary, comprised of engineers, software developers and functional and software verifiers.