ETCS installed on 6399 track-km at a cost of €2.8bn.
Photo Credit: Infrabel
BELGIAN infrastructure manager Infrabel announced on December 15 the completion on schedule of the national masterplan to equip all 6399 track-km of its core network with ETCS, following the commissioning of the final 87km between Haren and Ottiginies the day before.
Belgium is the second country in Europe to achieve national rollout after Luxembourg, and now has the most track-km fitted with ETCS, including 2361 track-km where ETCS Level 2 has been installed.
ETCS Level 1 is in service on 2783 track-km, and the Limited Supervision version of Level 1 has been installed on 1113km of secondary lines. ETCS Leve…
ETCS installed on 6399 track-km at a cost of €2.8bn.
Photo Credit: Infrabel
BELGIAN infrastructure manager Infrabel announced on December 15 the completion on schedule of the national masterplan to equip all 6399 track-km of its core network with ETCS, following the commissioning of the final 87km between Haren and Ottiginies the day before.
Belgium is the second country in Europe to achieve national rollout after Luxembourg, and now has the most track-km fitted with ETCS, including 2361 track-km where ETCS Level 2 has been installed.
ETCS Level 1 is in service on 2783 track-km, and the Limited Supervision version of Level 1 has been installed on 1113km of secondary lines. ETCS Level 1 and Level 2 has been installed on the high-speed lines to the Dutch and German borders, totalling 142km.
Infrabel says that the programme has cost €2.8bn at current prices, including a contribution of €100m from the European Union’s (EU) Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and is equivalent to the initial estimate of €2bn. Work has included equipping 11,144 lineside signals, as well as installing 48,398 balises and 658 GSM-R masts.
Siemens Mobility and Equans installed ETCS Level 2. Photo Credit Equans
ETCS Level 2 has been supplied by Siemens Mobility, working in consortium with Equans, which has been responsible for civil engineering, electrical work, hardware deployment, cabling and documentation. Siemens has supplied its Trainguard 200 system for 37 radio block centres (RBC) and 46 Simis W electronic interlockings.
Plan approved in 2011
The national ETCS masterplan was approved in October 2011, following the recommendations of the special commission on railway safety that was formed after the train collision at Buizingen on February 15 2010 in which 19 people were killed. Work to reduce the risk of trains passing signals at danger included accelerating installation of the national TBL1+ automatic train protection (ATP) system, completed in 2015 using balises that are compatible with ETCS.
As a result, Infrabel says that the number of trains passing signals at danger has fallen from 104 in 2010 to 51 in 2024, with the intervention of ETCS preventing any risk of collision from arising last year. When rolling stock fitment is completed by the December 2027 deadline established by law, residual risk will be divided by a factor of 16 when compared with 2010, according to Infrabel.
“ETCS, combined with digital traffic management systems, offers our customers the highest level of safety and reinforces the position of Belgium which now has one of the best-equipped and therefore safest rail networks in Europe,” says Infrabel CEO, Benoît Gilson.
“Belgium is the first country to implement ETCS across a highly complex network under operating conditions with almost no closures, setting the example Europe must follow,” says Siemens Mobility CEO, Michael Peter.