Author
Matthew Diggle BSc (HONS) CEng CITP MBCS MIRSE MIMechE MAPM
Technical Authority (Traffic Management, Control Systems, and Automatic Routesetting)
Matthew is an experienced railway systems engineer, specialising in signalling control systems. He began his career working for the original British Railways, moving on to work for several organisations within the rail industry. He has a had a wide-ranging career including maintenance, train building, and even attending incidents with the breakdown crane, but has specialised for several years on signalling and control systems for Hitachi.
Trackside Guardian
Keeping trackside workers safe on Britain's busy and complex rail network is a vital task. Hitachi is developing a novel system which helps with this and offers both increased safety and improved efficiency. It operates in parallel with the existing processes, independently calculating what signalling protection is required to protect a worksite, and doesn’t require any lineside equipment, although if devices such as TCODs are present it can interface with them. It formalises communication between trackside and signalling staff and displays information about signalling protection to both. By monitoring lineside infrastructure, it can provide warnings about unexpected events, such as SPADs or runaway vehicles that approach a line blockage, and it can filter out potentially unsafe commands by sitting between signalling control systems, including panels and VDU-based workstations, and relay or electronic interlockings, without needing changes to either of them.
