Banedanmark, the Danish infrastructure owner, has awarded the Thales - Balfour Beatty Rail consortium, a €400 million contract for the installation of a state-of-the-art European signalling system on nearly 1,200 km of rail lines across Jutland.
Banedanmark has decided to totally renew the existing signalling system with a new technologically advanced system to increase the attractiveness of rail transport. The improvements that will be gained will comprise of improved punctuality and higher utilisation of the tracks and more readily available information. The system being installed is the European Train Control System (ETCS Level 2), a signalling, control and train protection system that is gradually being introduced across Europe to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently in use.
The contract involves the use of the Thales ETCS Level 2 signalling solution but also interlocking combined with rail field equipment and a traffic management system; the track-side installation being carried out by Balfour Beatty Rail in Denmark. Together the consortium, led by Thales, will deliver a turn-key service including project management, technical management migration of the legacy system under the running operation and maintenance.
The challenge is to install the signalling solution with minimal disruption to the network operations and introduce it into service seamlessly. The delivery is planned from 2014 to 2021.
