The 3rd Asia-Pacific CCS Workshop on Control-Command and Signalling technology brought together participants from nearly 20 countries on 22 and 23 October 2014 in Tokyo.

On the first day, participants had an exclusive opportunity to have a close look at the new modern control system built by JR East in Tokyo to manage Shinkansen traffic and conventional trains, as well as the training centre equipped with the latest simulation tools.

The second day, inaugurated by Dr Matsumoto Masayuki, the Japanese expert in the field, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux and Satoshi Seino, Chairman of JR East, focused on discussions about the technology used in 2014 and its development since the previous edition five years ago in Chengdu. This discussion brought together European, American, Asian and Australian experts, giving participants an international overview, addressing issues raised by the participants of the region on the competitiveness of existing systems, innovations in terms of automation and monitoring of traffic, increased consideration with regard to available infrastructure and safety. Specific discussions were held on developing strategies in the area of railway telecommunications, particularly with the introduction of new LTE technologies. Finally, the various national experiences and existing technologies (complementary rather than competitive) helped to document future trends in the area.

Among the technical conclusions delivered at the end of this 3rd CCS Workshop, we can note that:

• Any signalling system needs to be considered together with correlated elements such as basic national principles and operational rules, traffic conditions (business models) and so on, to maintain an Overall Vision of the Rail System, which is a fundamental condition for the required safety level.
• We are witnessing an evolution of CCS systems worldwide towards “continuous time” systems, based on continuous transmission of track-train information, mostly via digital radio connection even in the regional/low traffic lines. The radio systems’ basic functions are more and more similar even if their tech. details (such as the used frequencies) can differ because of regional constraints/national tech rules etc.
• We have received a very good proposal for a basic architecture of computerised systems used in critical applications (HW and basic SW separated and interfaced in a standardised way with functional SW (SNCF)
• Using Formal Methods for Verification, Validation and Certification is the only workable way to prove safe and secure CCS systems (telecommunications not considered), if they are applied from the beginning of the design
• The use of satellite positioning techniques and the concept of “virtual balise” to translate absolute geographic position data to position data related to a specific track is more and more accepted as a way to save money for installation and maintenance of trackside CCS subsystems
• IP (Internet Protocol) based communication network to support CCS has characterised the development of ATACS and CBTC systems in Japan and is becoming the new trend of future worldwide designs as well.

Finally, in order to address the rapidly changing technological developments in the area of CCS, it was agreed that the participants would meet again for a new edition of this regional workshop in two years’ time, pending the global conference which is scheduled to take place in 2015.

The keynote speech made by UIC Director General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, “Present and future of CCS, the opportunities and threats of new supporting technologies worldwide” is available here:
http://uic.org/com/IMG/pdf/tokyo-23oct2014_3rd-ccs-asia-pacific-workshop_keynote-speech_jp-loubinou.pdf

Most of the discussions will be rebroadcast throughout November at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uic-asia-pacific-tv