The impact of modern signaling equipment on increasing railway line capacity

Abstract: Every railway line has a limited capacity. Commonly known calculation methods are used to determine it. However, with the development of signaling equipment and technological progress, the problem of increasing railway line capacity arises. This paper presents the impact of using various ETCS application configurations on the capacity of different categories of railway lines. Such analyses must be performed separately for each case.1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. The impact of railway infrastructure and ETCS on maintaining capacity
ETCS has been designed for use on all categories of infrastructure, including passenger and freight traffic, high-speed line sections, train operations on conventional and regional lines, hubs, stations, and marshalling yards. A high-priority condition is achieving capacity for every ETCS application used on railway lines or in hubs. To estimate and meet line capacity conditions, the following parameters must be considered: infrastructure characteristics, transport plans, and punctuality levels.
The method for achieving line capacity is defined in UIC Leaflet 406 Capacity, which is the basis for a common understanding of load issues and contains an agreed-upon method for calculating capacity achievement. Since UIC Leaflet 406
describes only the assessment for lines with conventional signaling, the presented model has been rebuilt to allow for adaptation to ETCS as well, across all three application levels.
1.2. Definitions of terms
Blocking time
Developing a model that defines the interaction between individual train trajectories and routes is necessary for calculating the infrastructure efficiency coefficient. In Germany, the blocking time model, aimed at achieving the required capacity, has been used since the 1960s. With the introduction of computers into daily life and the use of appropriate software tools to support the management of train routes and trajectories, this model continues to be used for creating timetables. (…)

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