This paper gives an overview of the Community's European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) programme. ERTMS is an umbrella programme that brings together three main streams of development activity in the areas of signalling and command/control (ERTMS/ETCS), telecommunications (GSM-R) and traffic management (ERTMS/ETMS). The programme is being implemented through a Master Plan, which defines in a systematic way the scope of the work to be performed up to the certification/commissioning of the different components of ERTMS, its timing and the role and responsibilities of the main actors involved. Particular reference is made in the paper to the set of key technical and management principles which underpin the structure of the Master Plan as well as to the main achievements and progress to date. For the covering abstract see ITRD E114174.
Abstract