Ban on entering tunnels

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As tunnel encounter ban (abbr. TBV ) in is rail operations in Germany, the ban on meeting certain trains in railway tunnels on several h traveled at least 250 km / high-speed lines , respectively. This particularly affects encounters between freight trains and very fast passenger trains . It can be ensured purely by dispatch (according to the schedule), by a technical system or a technical security with signaling security . While a dispositive exclusion is generally sufficient for routes commissioned in the 1990s, a particularly safe technical monitoring system is required for newer routes.

Lines without a tunnel (e.g. Oebisfelde – Berlin ) as well as the high-speed line Cologne – Rhine / Main , which for technical reasons is only used by passenger traffic , are not affected by the ban on entering tunnels .

Requirements and implementation

At the end of the 1980s, containers of the combined cargo traffic had proven to be critical for encounters between passenger and freight trains in tunnels, which made it necessary to reduce the pressure load when trains encountered passenger trains and thus to reduce the speed of the ICE.

According to the requirements of fire and disaster control for the construction and operation of railway tunnels (tunnel guideline) of the Federal Railway Authority , scheduled encounters between passenger and freight trains are not allowed in "double-track" tunnels of more than 500 m length.

Experiments on the high-speed line Hanover – Würzburg

When the timetable changed on December 13, 2009, the speed limit for ICE 1 and ICE 2 between the Krieberg and Eichenberg tunnels in the Hanover – Göttingen section of the Hanover – Würzburg high-speed line was increased to 280 km / h. A continuous speed increase to 280 km / h also in the tunnels of the new line was investigated. The necessary safe separation of passenger and freight trains should be implemented through changes to the existing signaling technology.

As part of the “Mixed traffic Fulda - Burgsinn” project, a procedure was tested in a three-week pilot operation from November 23, 2009 in the 44-kilometer section that was intended to enable freight trains to run during the day. Software should be used to prevent passenger and freight trains from meeting in tunnels. For this purpose, two tunnel areas with three or five tunnels, separated by the Mottgers overtaking station , were created. A reliable differentiation of the train types is ensured by measuring the center distances at 24 points using wheel sensors , which determine the center distances with an accuracy of 15 millimeters.

The system should also be used on other new lines. It should (as of 2010) be further optimized and used in the future if necessary. In a further stage of development, among other illegal driving signals should be prevented and the duty traffic controller at the depot Burgsinn and the operations center Frankfurt are relieved.

According to DB information from 2018, a reliable signaling solution is being sought. The implementation is not foreseeable. If the system is implemented, up to 20 additional routes in each direction could be added between Fulda and Burgsinn during the daytime.

High-speed line Nuremberg – Ingolstadt

On the high-speed line from Nuremberg to Ingolstadt , trains are allowed to travel at speeds of more than 250 km / h if there are no trains running on the route that are not allowed to encounter trains with speeds of more than 250 km / h, pass them or overtake them.

A TBV system is also to be used on the route.

Ebensfeld – Erfurt high-speed line

An exception permit from the Federal Ministry of Transport allows operation at 300 km / h between Ebensfeld and Erfurt
The Goldberg Tunnel is a typical tunnel with a double-track cross-section on the Ebensfeld – Erfurt high-speed line.

After the planning approval for the new Ebensfeld – Erfurt line with “double-track” tunnels was completed in 1996, the tunnel guidelines of the Federal Railway Authority were updated to increase safety. Since then, the directive only allows “single-track” tunnels. As a result of an examination and assessment by DB Netz, EBA and federal ministries, approval was given for the construction of “double-track” tunnels. This would also have limited environmental interventions and costs. A ban on entering tunnels was imposed as a condition. An encounter in the tunnel of passenger trains traveling at more than 250 km / h and trains that are technically unsuitable for this, in particular freight trains, is to be ruled out for aerodynamic reasons, as there is no knowledge about the behavior of vehicles and cargo.

The meeting of passenger trains with a speed of more than 250 km / h and freight trains is, according to the EBO exemption permit, "to be safely excluded" by an automatically operating technical system. This system - so the reasoning - "should meet the highest realizable signaling requirements, but at least SIL  4". This means that an impermissible encounter between a traveling train and a freight train is likely to occur at most every 113,000 years.

To rule out possible encounters and overtaking of passenger and freight trains in tunnels at least 1000 m long for reasons of fire and disaster protection as well as aerodynamics . For shorter tunnels, consideration is being given to setting up speed limits in the tunnel traffic ban system.

For the implementation of the ban on entering tunnels between passenger and freight trains, various solutions were investigated and, ultimately, a special system was designed that transmits permissions to the signal box to enter tunnels, provided certain criteria are met. To do this, configuration data (e.g. B. tunnel areas), rules for permitted and prohibited encounters as well as train categories with different characteristics (e.g. B. axle pattern and ETCS train categories). A corresponding system was in the final phase of development in mid-2015.

The security was ultimately to be implemented as an interlocking function . The system was tested from mid-2017. The RBC transmits train data to the interlocking, the interlocking provides the RBC with speed specifications. The dispatchers on the route have been trained to operate the system. According to some information, the system was already in operation at the end of 2017 (u. a. for loaded railway service vehicles ), according to other information, implementation should take place in 2018. The approval of the system was still pending at the beginning of 2019, which means that freight trains and non- pressure- capable Flixtrain trains (for the TBV system as freight trains) could not be carried over the route. According to DB information, in February 2019 the “creation of technical framework conditions”, which allow mixed operation taking into account the ban on tunnels, was in progress.

According to a specification of the Federal Railway Authority, the automatically controlled train control system may not currently be used as the sole means of preventing different types of trains from encountering in tunnels. (Status: 2019) If the train type has not been entered as an unchangeable value in the on -board unit, the test steps to ensure the correct entry of the train type in the ETCS on-board unit must be documented in writing using a checklist before starting the journey .

A process patented by Siemens provides for the use of fiber optic cables and optical time domain reflectometry to detect the type of train.

Due to the ban on entering tunnels, goods traffic can only travel at night on the route.

outlook

By means of the introduction of ETCS planned by 2030, the ban on crossing tunnels on the high-speed route Mannheim – Stuttgart is to be monitored and thus 280 km / h can also be permitted in tunnels. By expanding the route, the travel time on a number of connections can be shortened in Germany , and the nodes Stuttgart, Ulm and Augsburg can be better connected.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald Hartkopf: Problems of mixed traffic on new lines . In: The Federal Railroad . No. November 11 , 1989, ISSN  0007-5876 , pp. 981-984 .
  2. ↑ Requirements of fire and disaster control for the construction and operation of railway tunnels. (PDF) In: eba.bund.de. Federal Railway Office , July 1, 2008, pp. 5, 23 , accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Message ICE 1 and 2 with 280 km / h. In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . Issue 1/2010, p. 2.
  4. ↑ Exclusion of the simultaneous use of tunnels by passenger and freight trains. In: DB Systemtechnik (Ed.): Activity report 2007 . P. 21.
  5. ↑ a b c d Eberhard Kieffer, Reinhard Koren: Better utilization of tunnel-rich high-speed routes. In: Deine Bahn , 12/2010, ISSN  0948-7263 , pp. 43-47 ( PDF file ).
  6. ↑ a b Deutsche Bahn AG (publisher): DB Systemtechnik performance report 2009/2010 (PDF; 1.5 MiB), brochure as of January 2011, p. 19.
  7. ↑ a b c Mixing is possible. In: DB Welt , March 2010 edition, p. 15.
  8. ↑ a b Plan to increase the rail capacity (PEK) for the Hailer-Meerholz - Fulda rail line (route 3600), which has been declared overloaded. (PDF) DB Netz, May 24, 2018, pp. 17, 22 , accessed on June 24, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Train journeys at speeds between 250 km / h and 300 km / h. (PDF) Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, May 19, 2006, p. 3 , accessed on August 2, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Germany-Frankfurt am Main: Electrical signaling devices for rail traffic. Document 2020 / S 142-350545. In: Tenders Electronic Daily . July 24, 2020, accessed August 3, 2020 .
  11. ↑ a b c Hermann Schmalfuß: Commissioning of the new Ebensfeld - Erfurt line . In: The Railway Engineer . tape 68 , no. December 12 , 2017, ISSN  0013-2810 , p. 11-13 .
  12. ↑ Hans Dieter Müller: Approval of an exception from § 40 Paragraph 2 No. 1 EBO for the route 5919 in the Ebensfeld – Erfurt section. (PDF) LA 15 / 5163.1 / 1 / 2830340. Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure , October 5, 2017, p. 2 f. , accessed on June 10, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Volker Butzbach: Enter ETCS train category. (PDF) In: deutschebahn.com. Deutsche Bahn, December 10, 2017, accessed on August 20, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Reiner Behnsch, Jens Reissaus: Conception of the control and safety technology on the new lines of the VDE 8 . In: Railway technical review . tape 61 , no. 4 , 2016, ISSN  0013-2845 , p. 10-12 .
  15. ↑ Michael Fußy, Sven Beyer: ETCS Level 2 without signals on the Halle / Leipzig - Erfurt route . In: Your train . tape 43 , no. 6 , 2015, ISSN  0172-4479 , p. 12-17 .
  16. ↑ a b New VDE 8.1 line opened . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . 70 f. February 2018, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 70-72 .
  17. ^ Richard Kahl: ETCS Level 2 . In: Jochen Trinckauf , Ulrich Maschek, Richard Kahl, Claudia Krahl (eds.): ETCS in Germany . 1st edition. Eurailpress, Hamburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-96245-219-3 , pp. 197-225 .
  18. ↑ Reiner Behnsch, Jens Reissaus: Conception of the control and safety technology on the new lines of the VDE 8 . In: ETR Special . 2017, ISBN 978-3-87154-620-4 , ISSN  0013-2845 , pp. 53-55 ( PDF file ).
  19. ↑ Flixtrain Berlin - Cologne is coming in May . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International . ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 217 .
  20. ↑ No freight train on the ICE route . In: Franconian Day Bamberg . February 18, 2019, p. 3 .
  21. ↑ No tunnel crossing on route 5919 Erfurt - Unterleiterbach. In: fahrweg.dbnetze.com. DB Netz, 2019, accessed on August 4, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Checklist for choosing the ETCS train category for RUs. (PDF) In: fahrweg.dbnetze.com. Retrieved August 4, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Method and device for implementing a ban on encountering predetermined types of train on a section of a railway system. (PDF) WO 2016/139031 A1. World Intellectual Property Organization , September 9, 2016, accessed August 2, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Markus Balser: No freight train on the ICE route. In: sueddeutsche.de. February 14, 2019, accessed August 14, 2020 .
  25. ↑ The Stuttgart node in the 2nd expert draft of the Deutschland-Takt. (PDF) In: bahnprojekt-stuttgart-ulm.de. Deutsche Bahn, 2020, p. 4 in PDF , archived from the original on January 3, 2020 ; accessed on January 3, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Minister Hermann is pleased with the progress made in expanding the northern approach to Stuttgart Central Station. In: vm.baden-wuerttemberg.de. Ministry of Transport Baden-Württemberg, March 8, 2020, accessed on March 11, 2020 .