Infrabel: Siemens caused 125 traffic disruptions in Q1 alone
Staff Writer |
In the first quarter of 2018, 125 traffic disruptions were recorded as a result of the malfunction of train detection system on the tracks.
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These caused 9,000 minutes of delays (1 hour 40 minutes each day), which is twice as much as during the same period last year.
This issue concerns equipment provided by the firm Siemens, the supplier of these "axle counters", which is struggling to find a solution to the reliability problems affecting the new equipment supplied to Infrabel, Infrabel said.
Across the Belgian rail network, two devices provide the ability to locate a train: "track circuits" and "axle counters".
This equipment performs the same essential function for safe and efficient railway traffic, since the correct functioning of signal lights depends on the location of the trains.
Put simply, when a train leaves a track section, the light upstream clears the way for the next train. If this detection device malfunctions, the light remains on red, stopping the traffic.
In May 2017, the firm Siemens, Infrabel's supplier, started to extend the installation of a new type of axle counter (called "AC100") across the Belgian network. Since this time, reliability problems affecting this equipment have continued to emerge.
This has culminated in major traffic disruption, such as happened in Schaerbeek on 12 March. At the beginning of the rush hour, and despite the rapid intervention of Infrabel's engineers, a series of malfunctions involving one "AC100" axle counter caused nearly 7 hours of cumulative delays, affecting 52 passenger trains.
In total, in the first three months of this year, 125 disruptions (located in Brussels, the Hasselt area and along the so-called “dorsale Wallonne” in particular) caused around 9,000 minutes of delays… which works out at 1 hour 40 minutes each day. This is twice as much as during the same period in 2017.
Infrabel's teams, which work continually on improving punctuality, are powerless today. When the "AC100" devices were reported to be unreliable at the end of 2017, Infrabel contacted Siemens to demand an urgent investigation into the problems encountered.
Four months on, Siemens is still unable to provide a structural solution, let alone an action plan. Not only that, but Siemens' on-call teams, which are supposed to intervene urgently when a problem arises, demonstrate a lack of responsiveness, thereby multiplying the disruption effects for railway traffic.
Today, Infrabel is holding Siemens to account. Its failure to take action is impacting heavily on punctuality and therefore on the convenience of network users – passenger and freight train operators alike.
Infrabel is therefore calling on Siemens to make every effort as quickly as possible to provide a solution to the chronic reliability problems affecting the equipment supplied. â–
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