Dynamical coupling concept

Railways is the terrestrial most efficient and least polluting transportation mean, but lack of
services due to expensive infrastructure is a limiting factor to transition from private
polluting and inefficient transportation means to public and efficient / clean transportation
(i.e railways). In fact, only 19% of the freight transportation in Europe is performed by
railways while the rest is done by track that creates traffic congestion and direct and indirect
pollution.

Europe is currently developing 2 potential solutions to improve single track capacity, one of
the main factors for the lack of services in railways. These technologies are Moving Blocks
(ETCS L3) and Virtual Coupling (VC). Both technologies will require extensive infrastructure
investments as they require complete change of the signaling system on existing tracks and
overall ATO (Automatic train operation) for the entire trip, while there is no interoperability.
Both also have very long anticipated time to market (TTM).

An alternative / complementary solution would be if we had the ability to connect two (or
more) running trains so that on shared sections of the track, they would run as a single
train. This would significantly shorten average headways and provide the ability to
increase actual track capacity while staying completely interoperable with existing
infrastructures.

Connecting two trains while running is not a simple task and requires multi-disciplinary
expertise. With our partners, we established the high-level solution to allow two trains to
couple while in motion (at nominal running speed), and we are searching for partners to
collaborate with to create a proof of concept (POC) of our Dynamic Coupling (DC) technology.

The conceptual solution has the following phases:

 Acquisition phase
Parameter negotiation and agreement (between two consecutive trains).
 Approaching phase
ATO handoff and follower / leader distance mitigation.
 Connection phase
Physical (Mechanical) connection.
 Latching phase
Final connection phase, the two trains are now a single train.

For more information, please contact :

Achour DEBIANE
R&D manager
adebiane@certia.fr
www.certia.fr