The publicly published infor­ma­ti­on on the freight train derailm­ent in the Gott­hard Base Tun­nel indi­ca­tes a bro­ken wheel on the derai­led train. Over­loa­ding or mate­ri­al defects are under con­side­ra­ti­on as pos­si­ble cau­ses of the fail­ure. What actual­ly hap­pen­ed remains a mat­ter for the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­ti­ons of the Swiss Trans­por­ta­ti­on Safe­ty Inves­ti­ga­ti­on Board (Sust).

Topics dis­cus­sed:

• How are safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents manufactured?
• How are they appro­ved and put into operation?
• How are they maintained?
• What signi­fi­can­ce does moni­to­ring have in daily operations?
• Which moni­to­ring pos­si­bi­li­ties exist?
• Uni­form rules enable safe coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween the actors
• Out­look for digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pling (DAC)

How are safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents manu­fac­tu­red?
Safe­ty-rele­vant and safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents such as wheel pans are desi­gned so as to per­form their task over the plan­ned peri­od of use under the pre­vai­ling con­di­ti­ons of ope­ra­ti­on and use and ther­eby to ensu­re safe tra­vel. The manu­fac­tu­ring firms make use of inter­na­tio­nal­ly reco­g­nis­ed stan­dards to accom­plish this:

• Tech­ni­cal Spe­ci­fi­ca­ti­ons for Inter­ope­ra­bi­li­ty (TSI) estab­lish fun­da­men­tal requirements.
• Euro­pean Stan­dards (EN) defi­ne the spe­ci­fic properties.
• Manu­fac­tu­r­ers employ har­mo­nis­ed and stan­dar­di­sed safe­ty methods for deve­lo­p­ment and testing.
• Stan­dar­di­sed safe­ty veri­fi­ca­ti­ons and assess­ments docu­ment the safe­ty and usability.

The inter­na­tio­nal expe­ri­en­ces from inci­dents and acci­dents con­ti­nuous­ly enter into the deve­lo­p­ment of the stan­dards and TSI.

How are they appro­ved and put into ope­ra­ti­on?
Brin­ging safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents onto the mar­ket requi­res an inter­na­tio­nal­ly stan­dar­di­sed appr­oval from the Euro­pean Agen­cy for Rail­ways (ERA) or a natio­nal safe­ty aut­ho­ri­ty. This con­sists of:

• Type appr­ovals for com­pon­ents or vehicles
• Con­for­mi­ty veri­fi­ca­ti­ons for iden­ti­cal seri­al parts or vehicles
• CE mark (Con­for­mi­té Euro­pé­en­ne) for a com­po­nent that satis­fies the appli­ca­ble EU directives
• Ope­ra­ting aut­ho­ri­sa­ti­on for a vehic­le in com­pli­ance with the rules

The cer­ti­fi­ca­ti­on that com­pon­ents were manu­fac­tu­red accor­ding to the requi­re­ments of stan­dards and TSI is issued by so-cal­led “noti­fied bodies”, in other words state-aut­ho­ri­sed agen­ci­es. These inspect and eva­lua­te whe­ther the manu­fac­tu­red pro­ducts con­form to the rules.

How are they main­tai­ned?
The manu­fac­tu­rer is obli­ged to defi­ne and publish the appli­ca­ble main­ten­an­ce requi­re­ments for all com­pon­ents or vehic­les. Wagon kee­pers must imple­ment these manu­fac­tu­rer requi­re­ments in accordance with the con­di­ti­ons of use. They appoint cer­ti­fied enti­ties in char­ge of main­ten­an­ce (ECMs) for their rol­ling stock. The lat­ter in turn estab­lish main­ten­an­ce requi­re­ments for the vehic­les assi­gned to them in con­side­ra­ti­on of their own know­ledge and indus­try exper­ti­se. They also plan regu­lar work, carry it out and docu­ment the results. Every wagon appro­ved for ope­ra­ti­on must be regis­tered in an offi­ci­al vehic­le regis­try, inclu­ding the name of the wagon kee­per and the ECM.

What signi­fi­can­ce does moni­to­ring have in daily ope­ra­ti­ons?
The rail­way under­ta­kings (RUs) are respon­si­ble for the safe tra­vel, pre­pa­ra­ti­on, dis­patching and other safe­ty aspects of their trains. They defi­ne the inspec­tions and tests for ensu­ring that every trip can be com­ple­ted safe­ly. To deter­mi­ne this ope­ra­tio­nal sui­ta­bi­li­ty, trai­ned employees carry out defi­ned visu­al inspec­tions befo­re depar­tu­re. This extre­me­ly deman­ding work takes place at all times of day and in all wea­ther. During the train dis­patching and the asso­cia­ted inspec­tions and tests, safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents are also affor­ded spe­cial attention.

Which moni­to­ring pos­si­bi­li­ties exist?
The wagon kee­pers are respon­si­ble for the pro­per main­ten­an­ce of their vehic­les. Safe­ty-rele­vant and safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents are regu­lar­ly inspec­ted, such as with ultra­sound mea­su­re­ments. Safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents are sub­ject not only to strict inspec­tions but also spe­cial obli­ga­ti­ons with regard to label­ling, main­ten­an­ce and tracea­bi­li­ty of the mea­su­res. The RUs can demand wagon-spe­ci­fic infor­ma­ti­on from the wagon keepers.

On the Swiss stan­dard gauge net­work, the infra­struc­tu­re ope­ra­tors curr­ent­ly main­tain over 250 way­si­de train moni­to­ring sys­tems. These moni­tor every vehic­le as it pas­ses by for irre­gu­la­ri­ties and can trig­ger alarms in the event of unac­cep­ta­ble devia­ti­ons. In this case, the respec­ti­ve train is imme­dia­te­ly stop­ped and inspected.

Uni­form rules enable safe coope­ra­ti­on bet­ween the actors
A varie­ty of dif­fe­rent com­pa­nies all work tog­e­ther in rail­way ope­ra­ti­ons. Every actor must be able to depend on the relia­bi­li­ty of the others at the points where they inter­face tog­e­ther. Their tasks and respon­si­bi­li­ties are cle­ar­ly and uni­form­ly regu­la­ted at the inter­na­tio­nal level. Har­mo­nis­ed regu­la­ti­ons for manu­fac­tu­re, ope­ra­ti­on and main­ten­an­ce ensu­re safe rail trans­port (for more on the regu­la­ti­ons gover­ning the inter­na­tio­nal coope­ra­ti­on, check back on this blog again soon).

Out­look for digi­tal auto­ma­tic cou­pling (DAC)
Bes­i­des imple­men­ta­ti­on of the appli­ca­ble requi­re­ments by every actor par­ti­ci­pa­ting in rail trans­port, new tech­no­lo­gies are now coming to the fore. Auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on can do more than sim­ply make ope­ra­ting pro­ces­ses more effi­ci­ent. They also open up new oppor­tu­ni­ties for ope­ra­tio­nal moni­to­ring of safe­ty-rele­vant and safe­ty-cri­ti­cal com­pon­ents in freight trains. The ongo­ing digi­tal recor­ding of the con­di­ti­on of these com­pon­ents offers an attrac­ti­ve oppor­tu­ni­ty to the respon­si­ble par­ties. By digi­tal­ly track­ing pro­ces­ses of wear and age­ing pro­ces­ses on each indi­vi­du­al vehic­le, it is pos­si­ble to effi­ci­ent­ly plan main­ten­an­ce work accor­ding to the actu­al needs. Faul­ty com­pon­ents can be iden­ti­fied and repla­ced befo­re a total fail­ure. If a com­po­nent fail­ure occurs during tra­vel, this can imme­dia­te­ly trig­ger an alarm.

To make use of this inno­va­ti­on in freight trans­port, the wagons requi­re sen­sor sys­tems, elec­tri­cal ener­gy and data com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on with the train dri­ver, the sys­tems of the wagon kee­pers and the ECMs. These pre­re­qui­si­tes will be met with the plan­ned Euro­pe-wide intro­duc­tion of DAC (see the blog post “Data eco­sys­tems: Sha­ring data to dou­ble its added value”). In this way, auto­ma­ti­on and digi­ta­li­sa­ti­on are trans­forming con­ven­tio­nal rail freight ope­ra­ti­ons into an intel­li­gent, effi­ci­ent, resi­li­ent and safe mode of transport.