Information believed accurate as of
March 2004. Please email corrections, updates, or
comments to: Tom Sullivan.
Please let these firms know you learned about them from
TSD.ORG
ABBREVIATIONS:
RF=Radio Frequency; IL=Inductive
Loop; RF-ID=Passive Radio Frequency Identification
Transponder; OP: Optical
DCS=Data Communications System (CBTC communications system backbone);
Proprietary = Typically, only one source. Prices unknown and/or not published.
Licensing fees undisclosed.
Open = Technology and interfaces are open and/or based upon consensus
standards such as ANSI/EIA IEEE, etc.
COTS = Commercial Off The Shelf. Published prices (Price is known and the same
for everyone.)
Top
Signal
Supplier Score Card
Alcatel Canada's (Formerly
ITT SEL) flagship CBTC product Seltrac™ evolved from LZB which means
continuous train control. Originally, LZB trackside equipment was developed and manufactured by Alcatel
(Germany) under the designation LZB 172. Train based equipment was a joint development of
Alcatel and Siemens now designated LZB 80.
Much like Siemens and Alcatel
which jointly
developed LZB, Alstom and BTR (British Westinghouse) developed a common Triple
Modular Redundant
Solid State Interlocking (SSI) architecture under the design guidance of British Rail. The original SSI
accepts hot-swappable modules and has been a
standard for RailTrack in the UK for years. Older TFMs (Trackside Functional Modules)
based upon the original 1 MHz CPU clock are interchangeable between suppliers -- good news for buyers who desire not to be
tethered to a single supplier for spares. Unfortunately, newer 2 MHz units are
incompatible and not interchangeable.
Ansaldo Signal is the Netherlands holding company for Ansaldo Signalamento Ferroviario in
Genoa, Italy; AT Signal System in Spanga, Sweden; CSEE Transport in Les Ulis,
France; Union Switch & Signal (US&S) in Pittsburgh, PA USA; and Union Switch &
Signal Pty. Ltd., in Brisbane, Australia. Prior to being purchased by Ansaldo, US&S
purchased Transcontrol. Ansaldo Signal is a holding company reporting to Italian
government-controlled Finmeccanica responsible for maximizing profits in the signaling
industry. Ansaldo is no longer a
public company. In April 2000, Ansaldo Transporti bought out mostly US stockholder's 4
million shares valuing the company at under $80M. As of mid-1995 Ansaldo does
not appear to have a CBTC-based product.
Alstom (formerly GEC
Alsthom) purchased French signaling firm Jeumont Schneider in the mid-1970s.
In 1998, Alstom purchased SASIB Railway of Italy (which in turn owned the US
firm General Railway Signal based in Rochester, NY). In 1998 the original GEC (UK) and Alsthom (France) partnership floated
shares on the market to reduce its participation in GEC Alsthom to 24% or less.
Formerly called Atlas in the early 1990's, Alstom's latest CBTC technology system is called URBALIS.
URBALIS is comprised of MASTRIA, Automatic Train Control subsystem (trackside and on-board parts)
and SMARTLOCK the interlocking component.
SACEM, a fixed-block overlay train control
system has its roots in a 1980's development led by RATP for RER. Three firms
developed SACEM: (1) CSEE (now part of Ansaldo), (2) Matra Transport
(later purchased by Siemens), and
(2) Jeumont Schneider (later purchased by GEC Alsthom and later became Alstom). In
1998, French courts denied Matra's claim only it could use the name SACEM.
Derivatives of SACEM have since evolved each incorporating changes requested by
customers. As a consequence, newer versions of SACEM are all incompatible. The original Algol source code for SACEM remains in the public domain. TSD understands that
in 1993 Matra ported its SACEM Algol source code to Ada which has since formed the
basis for the inductive
loop CBTC system Siemens now calls Meteor. Siemens' plans to integrate Meteor with a new
RF-based Digital Communications System (DCS) for NYCT's Canarsie
Line project. We have heard that RATP may hold some intellectual
property rights to the Meteor technology. TSD welcomes input, comment,
discussion and
updates on this subject in its discussion forum.
Bombardier: DaimlerChrysler purchased ABB's share
of Adtranz early in 1999. In 2000, DaimlerChrysler sold its Adtranz group to Bombardier
and the transaction was completed in April, 2001. Previously, Adtranz was a merger of ABB (Sweden) and Daimler Benz (Germany).
Prior to that, ABB
purchased AEG
Westinghouse (Germany) which in turn had previously purchased the Transportation Division of
Westinghouse Electric Corp. (WELCO - US). WELCO provided the train control for
SF-BART and Sao Paulo, METRO based upon an advanced failsafe time division
multiplex system. CMW Equipmentos based in Brazil is now owned by
Alstom. The "W" in CMW came from a prior relationship with Westinghouse
Electric Corp. In
May of 2004.Bombardier's driverless CBTC product formerly known as Flexiblok was renamed CITYFLO* 650.
For operator attended systems the product is CITYFLO* 450.
GE: In 1999, GE Harris (a 50-50
partnership) purchased Rutherford's Rail Safety Engineering (US) and
also Syseca but in 2002 GE sold its Syseca group to ARINC. In September of 2000 GE Harris purchased Harmon and
was renamed GE Harris Harmon.
In mid-2001, GE purchased its Harris half creating a new GE subdivision
known as GE Transportation Systems (GETS). The signaling piece under this
group (previously Harmon Industries) is now called "GETS Global
Signaling." In the late 1990's, Harmon enhanced and cost-reduced an advanced military
radio network system
known as EPLRS based upon
technology first developed by Hughes Aircraft (which later was sold to Raytheon) for
the US Army and Marines. The
original Hughes development of EPLRS was completed under a contract
for the US Department of Defense that exceed
US $500,000,000. Today, GE's EPLRS radio ranging network forms the heart
of its Advanced Automatic Train Control
System CBTC product now being developed for SF BART. We understand that GE's advanced EPLRS radio network is
also sold al a carte.
Safetran Systems (US) and
Westinghouse
Signals UK's parent was formerly BTR Rail. In February, 1999 BTR and Siebe merged
to form Invensys. With 100,000
employees. Invensys also owns Triconex a manufacturer of non-stop triple modular redundant safety
computer systems that are also used with IEEE-1473-L technology to control
and monitor nuclear reactors.
Westinghouse Signals Ltd, Westinghouse Signals
Australia,
Safetran and Dimetronic have been members of Invensys
Rail Systems since BTR merged with Siebe in 1999. In April, 2000 Invensys sold Westinghouse
Brakes to Knorr-Bremse. Westinghouse Brake with 600 employees supplies metro and passenger
rail brake systems primarily in the UK and Asian markets and freight brake systems to
Australian and New Zealand. Knorr-Bremse, headquartered in Munich has 8,000 employees and sells rail braking systems.
Invensys Rail's Transmission Based Signalling platform is called TBS100. In January of 2001, Westinghouse Signals reported its TBS100 has been operating reliably in revenue service in
Madrid since 1999.
Westinghouse states
it is based upon an all new platform with open architecture and
will provide the maximum resistance to obsolescence of the available platforms
today. On July 2, 2001, Westinghouse Signals Ltd, changed its name to
Westinghouse Rail Systems,
Ltd
For
more information about specific CBTC Projects click here.
Please email additions/corrections/updates to
Tom Sullivan
|
Firm
|
Contact |
CBTC
/ Other Relevant Expertise |
| ACEx |
Ray Louis
|
Communications; data networking IEEE/1473-L (LonWorks)
routers |
| ARINC |
Audrey
Strathmeyer |
RF and network systems for Air,
Rail, and Transit systems |
| Battelle |
Jon
Luedeke |
Safety analysis of train control systems |
| ARUP |
Naor Wallach |
Architectural Engineering Firm -
45% in Rail Market inc. Train Control |
| Booz Allen &
Hamilton |
Mick
McDonald |
Advanced Train Control and
Transportation Systems |
| Communication Architecture |
Ron Lindsey |
Railroad RF data communications.
Publishes "Full Spectrum " |
| Critical
Link |
John
Fayos |
RF data communications; embedded real-time
systems design |
| HCRQ
System Safety |
Emmett
McCain |
Safety-critical systems,
software safety |
| Grappone Technologies, Inc. |
Victor Grappone |
Train Control and Broken Rail
Detection systems |
| Group
Alpha, Inc. |
|
IEEE 1473-L design & interfacing |
| Innovation |
Ron
Tolmei |
Train Control and Electronic
Systems |
| Parsons
Transportation Group |
Alan
Rumsey |
Lead consultant on NYCT's CBTC Canarsie Line
Project |
| PB Transit
& Rail Systems |
Harvey
Glickenstein |
Power, Signals, Communications
and Transit Vehicles |
|
Lea + Elliott
|
Wade Scott
|
Automated People Movers & Train Control systems |
| Rail
Transit Consultants |
Rick
Lerew |
Vehicle systems design &
integration. Experienced with IEEE-1473-L |
| Transportation
Systems Design |
Tom Sullivan |
Systems and network
architecture, US standards, instruction/teaching |
| LTK Engineering
Services |
Jim Dietz |
Vehicles and rail transit systems
design |
| Semaly
|
Herve
Cugnet |
20 yrs transit experience
with advanced technology Train Control |
| Signal
Innovations |
John Cipollone |
Innovative signaling and train
control technology for railroads transit. |
| STV,
Inc. |
Tom
Spearing |
Rail Transit Vehicle Systems,
Rail Transit Standards |
| Systra
Consulting |
|
Power, Signals, CBTC & Train Control
Systems |
| TJMPE |
Tom McGean |
Automated People
Movers and Rail Standards |
| Turner Engineering Company |
David
Turner |
Engineering system design and
safety analysis of rail transit vehicles |
| West Bridge Consultants |
John Selke |
CBTC expertise & software
development. See
also: www.tsd.org/about |
