Indian Railways has commissioned its indigenous Train Collision and Avoidance System (TCAS) between Umri and Sivungaon stations on the Secunderabad-Mudkhed route.
Loco trials have been successfully conducted between Umri & Sivungaon stations with a TCAS equipped diesel loco. Display of all signal aspects in DMI, automatic whistling at en route LC gates, speed supervision & SPAD prevention features have been perfectly observed during the trials, says a statement from South Central Railway.
This is the first installation of the TCAS on Indian Railways after moving out of the development stage. It marks the beginning of a wider rollout of the automatic train protection system across the Indian Railways. Hyderabad based Medha Servo Drives was handed the contract for deployment of the system on this stretch.
TCAS installation between Umri and Sivungaon
- TCAS station unit at Sivungaon & Umri stations and Relay wiring and power supply arrangements.
- 40m high TCAS towers & associated cabling in redundant path.
- Programmed RFID tags in stations and in block section.
- Established Radio Communication for FULL SUPERVISION mode
- NMS connectivity to divisional test room located at divisional headquarters.
What is Train Collision and Avoidance System
TCAS is an Indian designed Automatic Train Protection (ATP) System. The system was designed to prevent train accidents caused due to Signal Passed at Danger (SPAD) or other human errors.
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The system provides assistance to loco pilots through a real-time display that provides information on signalling, movement authority, target speeds, distance, signal aspects, etc directly in the cab.
South Central Railway was identified to conduct trails in association with RDSO between Lingampalli – Vikarabad – Wadi & Vikarabad – Bidar sections earlier.
Deployment of TCAS was already sanctioned for 1,200 km of the route between Manmad – Nanded – Secunderabad – Dhone – Guntakal and Bidar – Parli – Parbhani sections.
TCAS Components
- Stationary TCAS un
- Locomotive TCAS unit
- RFID tags at sleepers
Some salient features of TCAS are:
- Detection and prevention of SPAD
- Display of movement authority to loco pilot
- Continuous train control
- In-Cab signalling
- Loop-line speed control
- Protection for permanent speed restrictions
- Head-On and rear-end collision prevention
- Prevention of collision (side- infringement)
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Indian Railways has decided to go all-in on TCAS after initially planning to deploy the European Train Control System Level 2 (ETCS L2) on the proposed 160 kmph routes of Mumbai-Delhi and Delhi-Howrah. However, the system was considered far too costly. TCAS, under development for over five years, was chosen for deployment instead.
ETCS L1 is currently being deployed on the Dedicated Freight Corridor. The Train Protection and Warning System, a flavour of ETCS L1, has also been deployed between Delhi and Agra and in the suburban section at Chennai.