Page 50 - Vía Libre Special - 25 Years of Spanish High Speed Rail

SPECIAL

years of Spanish high speed rail

logical challenge for the entire European railway in- These pioneers would go on to invest in the
dustry, since our country was the first to take on, in effort and bear the cost of the development of up-
an exemplary manner, the commitment acquired by grading versions of these technical standards, which
the European Parliament and the Council to create a would improve on the initial standards, as we have
single European railway area. seen with the various versions of the TIS.
From that moment until now all tenders for
the construction of high speed lines include in their Global competitiveness
bidding documents the requirement that all equi-
pment comply with the requirements set out in the As a result of this vision, Spanish industry has
Technical Interoperability Specifications (TIS). been able to provide interoperable systems and has
The Spanish railway industry was the first to won public tenders for the development and imple-
take on this challenge and the risk it involved, so mentation of the principal subsystems of infrastruc-
becoming the pioneers in implementing these new ture, superstructure, and rolling stock. A technolo-
standards, which called for significant investment in gical effort which has ultimately made for a major
R&D, development costs, and testing. competitive advantage.

LUNA Signalling

The Madrid-Seville high speed line was equipped with LZB signalling from a single supplier, while subsequent
lines adopted the European ERTMS standard for their main system, from various suppliers. Different levels of the
standard were installed depending on the speed; Level 1 for maximum speeds of up to 300 km/h, and Level 2
for up to 350 km/h.
What differentiates these systems from the LZB is the concept of interoperability, meaning that any train
from any manufacturer equipped with its version of ERTMS can run on any line fitted with ERTMS, also regardless
of the builder of that line, the rail network, or the country it is in.
Spain is a pioneer in the installation of ERTMS, having installed it on the longest high speed line in Euro-
pe. The most important multinationals which are currently developing the new ERTMS projects being installed all
over the world have set up and established their centres of excellence here.

50 Vía Libre • Special 25th Anniversary of the AVE Edition