Procuring new trains (NAO, 2014)

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date 25 April 2002
source ATOC
type Press release

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) today said it supports the findings in the report published by the SRA and Railway Safety on the fitment of ERTMS to Britain’s rail network.

ATOC Director General, George Muir, said: "The report points the way forward to getting the best available signalling system for this country, bringing safety and capacity benefits. But we are talking about a very large, complex system, I expect it is at least as challenging as the air traffic control system Swanwick, so we must plan it properly and do very careful development and testing. The next step is to fill in the details of the plan and move forward with development and trials.

"In the meantime, we have moved very fast and already fitted 60% of the fleet with TPWS, a simple but effective system aimed at stopping trains passing red lights. We are on target to fit all trains and track well within the end date December 2003. In addition, the industry is researching an enhancement to TPWS, called TPWS+, to add further protection to high-speed trains. Because we are fitting the system to all trains and all the critical signals, we will then have in Britain something comparable in its effect to the safety systems in other countries whose systems are not generally fitted so widely."
 
-ENDS-

ATOC Press Office 020 7904 3010

Railhub Archive ::: 2002-04-25 ATO-001