Written question asked by Lord Bradshaw (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour) on Thursday, 11 October 2007.

Railways: Traffic Management

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their assessment of whether the theoretical benefits of the European rail traffic management system of shorter headways between trains could be achieved with more efficient train planning, optimised signal spacing and improved driver training.

Answer: The business case work by the cross-industry European rail traffic management system (ERTMS) programme team in December 2006 demonstrated that implementing ERTMS may bring direct improvements in capacity and performance while facilitating wider industry benefits arising from bi-directional capability, removal of line-side signals and associated signal sighting constraints. It could also offer an overall reduction in whole-life, whole-industry cost for signalling and train control. The business case also highlighted that these benefits are not uniform across the whole network and that full realisation of them would depend on addressing route-specific issues such as infrastructure bottlenecks and terminal station capacity.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 5371; 695 c24WA
Session: 2006-07
Related items: Railways: Traffic Management
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Railways Railway signals Standards Automatic train protection European rail traffic management system
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk