IEEE Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee
MEETING OF WORKING GROUP #2
COMMUNICATION BASED TRAIN CONTROL
Date: April 27, 2000 - 9:00 am
Webmaster Note: This WG2
document probably should indicate July not April 27
Place: NJ Transit Headquarters, Newark
Attendees:
Name |
Representing |
Email |
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George Achakji |
Transport Canada |
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Bob Anderson |
Harmon |
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Ron Birkelbach |
Kennebec Inc. |
|
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Fred Childs |
PATH |
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Deborah Chin |
NYCT |
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John Cullen |
Rail Science, Inc. |
|
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Patty DeVlieg |
MUNI |
|
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Nicholas Estivals |
RATP |
|
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Harold Gillen |
US&S |
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H. Glickenstein |
PB Transit & Rail Systems |
|
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Seyed Hosseini |
Metro North |
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John LaForce |
SEPTA |
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Martin Lukes |
WMATA |
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Bob MacDonald |
T.K. Dyer |
|
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Rob McHugh |
SkyTrain |
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Lang Nguyen |
FRA |
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Denny Pascoe |
US&S |
|
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Gary Pruitt |
ARINC |
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Alan Rumsey |
Parsons Transportation Group |
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Carl Schwellnus |
Alcatel |
|
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Errol Taylor |
HNTB |
|
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John Vogler |
NJT |
|
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Robert Walsh |
Adtranz |
Minutes of Meeting:
1.0 HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
1.1 Introductions
Alan Rumsey thanked John Vogler and New Jersey Transit for hosting this meeting of Working Group #2 (WG2) of the Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee (RTVISC).
Alan Rumsey also welcomed those participants that were attending a WG2 meeting for the first time; specifically Nicholas Estivals who was representing the RATP from Paris, France.
1.2 Review of Previous WG2 Meeting Minutes
The minutes of the previous WG2 meeting held on April 27, 2000 were reviewed and accepted as written.
1.3 Actions Arising from Last RTVISC Meeting on
July 11/12, 2000
Alan Rumsey advised the Working Group that the Project Authorization Request (PAR) to develop a Standard for User Interface Requirements in Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) Systems had been approved by the IEEE-SA Standards Board on June 21, 2000. The approved Scope and Purpose is as defined in the draft standard.
1.3.1
New Wayside Protocol Standard
Based on discussions at the WG9 meetings, a new IEEE Standard has been proposed for “Non-Safety Critical Train and Wayside Data Intercommunication”. The intended scope of this standard is to define the Train-to-Wayside and Wayside-to-Train Data Communication transmission protocols for non-safety critical applications on rail transit vehicles. These applications are intended to include vehicle monitoring and diagnostics, en-route transit information, news and advertising uploads, database and software uploads, fare collection data, passenger load data, and others.
To avoid any conflicts with WG2 activities, the meeting participants recommended that the proposed standard be limited to non-train control applications only. It was acknowledged that the distinction between train control and non-train control functions may be difficult when considering certain Train Management/Automatic Train Supervision (ATS) functions, and to this end it was recommended that the PAR for the proposed standard include explicit reference to a coordination requirement with WG2.
1.4 IEEE Roster of Working Group Participants
As a result of an IEEE internal legal review concerning "indemnification", a new requirement has been established by the IEEE that there be a record of the individuals participating in the development of standards, both to quantify the number of individuals receiving indemnification and to have a record of the names of these individuals. This would make it easier to verify a participant's involvement with standards at a later date, should the need arise. (If an individual's name is not on the list, the individual is still indemnified for their standards participation but it will be more difficult to verify.)
The current WG2 Roster was circulated and corrected by the WG2 meeting participants.
The WG2 Chair will forward the updated Roster to the RTVISC Chair, Tom McGean. (ACTION: Alan Rumsey).
1.5 Coordination Issues
1.4.1 FRA Regulations and
Positive Train Control
John LaForce provided a brief status report on FRA/RSAC activities related to Positive Train Control. The FRA’s draft notice of proposed rulemaking was reviewed at a meeting on June 27/28, 2000. As a result of this meeting the draft will be revised and circulated at a final meeting on November 8/9, 2000. The proposed rule will then be published in the Federal Register for comment.
Other than the fact that the FRA/RSAC approach places increased focus on risk assessment (rather than more prescriptive requirements for vital systems), no major differences were noted between the safety assurance approaches being considered by the mainline railroads, and those being adopted in rail transit.
1.4.2 European Urban Guided
Transport Management System (UGTMS) Project
Nicholas Estivals of RATP (Paris) gave a brief presentation on the European UGTMS Project.
This proposed project is a 5-year program to develop standards and specifications, and conduct full-scale demonstrations for new signaling and train control systems (CBTC) for urban transit; similar to the ETCS/ERTMS program for mainline railroads in Europe.
Given the parallels between the European UGTMS project and North American rail transit standardization initiatives, it was agreed that there were benefits to sharing experiences and coordinating activities wherever practical.
Nicholas Estivals agreed to provide the WG2 Chair with contacts in the UGTMS Project. (ACTION: Nicholas Estivals)
1.5 Date/Location of Next WG2 Meeting
The next WG2 meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 1, 2000 in Oakland, California, and will be hosted by BART (Bob Miller).
2.0 STATUS OF RELATED STANDARDS INITIATIVES
Harold Gillen will be chairing a new Working Group to develop environmental standards for wayside electronic equipment, including wayside CBTC equipment. Anyone interested in participating in this Working Group should contact Harold directly.
Where practical, meetings of this new Working Group will be scheduled at the same time/location as WG2 meetings.
2.2 Highway Grade Crossing
Functional Requirements
The existing IEEE Std. 1474.1-1999 will be updated in the future to include an expansion of the functional requirements in paragraph 6.1.15: "Highway grade crossing warning". This update will be undertaken by a subgroup of WG2, chaired by Vic Grappone.
Alan Rumsey distributed proposed updates to paragraph 6.1.15 as prepared by Vic Grappone (copy attached). Meeting participants were encouraged to review and provide comments either to Alan Rumsey or Vic Grappone directly. (ACTION: All)
2.3 Operations of Trains
Without Crews
The existing IEEE Std. 1474.1-1999 will be updated in the future to include CBTC performance and functional requirements for train operations without crews. WG2 members who are interested in this topic were invited to identify those sections of the existing IEEE Std. 1474.1-1999 that would need to be updated to support train operations without crews, and provide inputs to the WG2 Chair. (ACTION: All)
3.0 USER INTERFACE STANDARD
3.1 Examples of CBTC Users Interfaces
Bob Anderson gave a presentation of the Compact Locomotive Display (CLD) being used on the ITCS project in south-west Michigan, including lessons learned and recommendations.
Bob MacDonald gave a presentation of the trainborne ATC Display Unit being used on the Tren Urbano project in SanJuan.
Denny Pascoe gave a presentation of the Driver Machine Interface (DMI) Cenelec standards developed for the European ERTMS/ETCS program.
John Laforce gave a presentation of the Central Monitoring System being developed for SEPTA’s CBTC project.
Other meeting participants also offered to give presentations at future WG2 meetings. Anyone interested in giving such a presentation was requested to contact the WG2 Chair. (ACTION: All).
3.2 Review of Draft D1.0 of the
Proposed Standard
Draft 1.0 of the proposed Standard, distributed on July 17, was reviewed by the meeting participants, with particular emphasis on section 4. Specific comments noted included:
· to be consistent with IEEE Std. 1474.1, the new standard should also recognize that ATO and ATS functions are optional and the applicability of user interface requirements for ATO/ATS functions will be as specified by the authority having jurisdiction
· the new standard should also recognize that while CBTC systems may be implemented as stand alone train control systems, they may also be integrated with other existing train control systems; specifically, for example, central control facilities may be provided by existing conventional systems
· user profile assumptions should be included in the standard for both operations and maintenance staff, but only to the extent necessary to support the standard (e.g. vision and hearing assumptions and education level).
· the intent of section 4 is to address general user interface requirements; any requirements specific to trainborne or central user interfaces only, should be moved into a later section of the standard.
All comments raised by the meeting participants will be addressed by the WG2 Chair in draft 2.0 (ACTION: Alan Rumsey).
Any additional comments on draft 1.0, together with suggested wording changes/additions, are to be forwarded to the WG Chair no later than August 31, 2000. (ACTION: All)
The WG Chair will incorporate all additional comments received, and issue draft 2.0 of the proposed standard by September 30, 2000. (ACTION: Alan Rumsey).
WG2 members are to forward any comment on draft 2.0 to the WG Chair prior to the next WG meeting, scheduled for November 1, 2000.
It was agreed that the next WG2 meeting should focus solely on the trainborne CBTC user interface, with discussions on the central and maintenance CBTC user interfaces deferred to subsequent WG2 meetings
4.0 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Fred Childs advised the meeting participants that the 2001 IEEE/ASME Joint Rail Conference was scheduled for April 17-19, 2001 in Toronto, Canada and would focus on “New Technology to Meet the Rail Industry Challenges of the 21st Century”. Papers are invited for presentation and discussion at this conference. Abstract (200-300 words) should be submitted no later than October 1, 2000.
Alan Rumsey advised the meeting participants that the Fourth International Conference on Communications-Based Train Control, sponsored by Railway Age and Parsons Transportation Group, would be held in Washington, D.C. on May 8/9, 2001.
In closing the meeting, Alan Rumsey again thanked John Vogler and NJ Transit for their hospitality.
Minutes prepared
by:
Dr. Alan F. Rumsey
WG2 Chair
If specified by the authority having jurisdiction, a CBTC system shall provide for the control of all highway crossings within CBTC territory. A CBTC system shall activate all such crossings in advance of the arrival of all CBTC-equipped trains and deactivate them immediately after they have passed. The system shall also take advantage of the inherent closed loop control inherent in CBTC to provide consistency in crossing warning times and to provide enhanced functionality.
A CBTC system shall provide a consistent warning time regardless of the speed of approaching trains to the maximum practicable extent. In no case shall the warning time be below that specified by the authority having jurisdiction.
A CBTC system shall
address the inherent complications posed by the possible acceleration of
approaching trains. This phenomenon
reduces the ability to accurately provide the prescribed warning due to the
uncertainty of speed variations after a train comes within range. The worst case under these conditions occurs
when a train accelerates after initially having been detected at a relatively
slow speed. To allow for this
possibility, conventional systems must assume maximum acceleration even if the
train does not do so. The resulting
warning times become excessive as a result of this. A CBTC system shall therefore provide for the limiting of
acceleration of approaching trains. The
degree of this limitation shall be variable on a site-by-site basis so that the
inherent trade-off between warning time consistency and delays to trains may be
balanced.
A CBTC system shall provide an alarm function whereby if any highway crossing is activated or has failed for more than a given time period, a temporary speed restriction shall be automatically enforced for all movements over the affected crossings. The time period shall be adjustable on a site-specific basis. Such conditions shall raise an alarm both at central control and at any auxiliary supervisory control workstation. These locations shall be provided with the capability to override the temporary speed restrictions.
A CBTC system shall provide for the preemption of all affected highway crossings upon the approach of a train scheduled to stop at any station intervening between the train’s current location and any crossings that would be otherwise activated. This function shall temporarily suspend the activation of these crossings. Such preemption shall enforce a positive stop for the involved train at a point in approach to and not more than 100 feet from the first affected crossing in the direction of the train’s movement. Preemption shall be released through a crossing release button in the driver’s cab, but not before the train has stopped for delay period that is adjustable on a site-specific basis.
If the information required to determine that a given train is scheduled to stop is not currently available, A CBTC system shall operate under the default assumption that the train is not scheduled to stop, i.e., that near-side station stop preemption shall be inactive.
A CBTC system shall provide for the optional interruption of all affected highway crossings when any train stops at any point that would normally cause those crossings to be activated. This function shall temporarily suspend the activation of these crossings. It shall be enabled only if the involved train is currently stopped for a time delay that shall be adjustable on a site-specific basis. Interruption shall enforce a positive stop for the involved train at a point in approach to and not more than 100 feet from the first affected crossing in the direction of the train’s movement.
Interruption shall be
provided in both manual and automatic modes.
The selection as to which mode will be active shall be selectable on a
site-specific basis. In manual mode,
interruption shall be initiated and released through crossing interruption and
release buttons in the driver’s cab. In
automatic mode, initiation will be automatically initiated and releasing shall
be the same as for manual mode.
A CBTC system shall provide dry (unpowered) relay contacts to provide information regarding the approach of trains to nearby highway traffic signals that require it. Some of these require an “interconnection” whereby the contacts are opened at the time the crossing is activated. Others require a “pre-pulse” whereby the contacts are opened at some predetermined time period before the crossing is activated. All such circuits shall be designed on the “closed circuit” principle.
A CBTC system shall be capable of interfacing with equipment provided for the detection of stalled vehicles at all highway crossings. A CBTC system be capable of distinguishing between the normal passage of road vehicles over the crossing and a vehicle that is actually stalled, based on a time duration that is adjustable on a site-specific basis. When a vehicle is determined to have stalled, a CBTC system shall automatically apply a temporary speed restriction for the involved train at a point in approach to and not more than 100 feet from the first affected crossing in the direction of the train’s movement.
A CBTC system shall incorporate an override function that will allow for the normal operation of trains to be restored in the event of a failure of the detection equipment.