GSM-Railways (GSM-R) is an obsolete mobile technology with a number of shortcomings in terms of capacity and capability. These shortcomings become a major issue for railways as GSM-R may limit the number of running trains in some areas and it cannot support advanced data services. Hence, alternative technologies, such as LTE, have to be considered as a future railway communication technology. T...

This paper describes the results to date of a feasibility study on model checking applied to railway interlockings. Our approach, in contrast to others, targets a high-level description of interlocking systems, namely the logical view of its operation. The result is a formal model that can be discussed with and validated by our industry partners and, moreover, provides a formal semantics for th...

This paper describes an ongoing project that involves DISI, the Computer Science Department of Genova University, and Ansaldo Segnalamento Ferroviario, the Italian leader in design and construction of signalling and automation systems for railway lines. We are implementing a multiagent system that monitors processes running in a railway signalling plant, detects functioning anomalies, provides ...

Modeling guidelines constitute one of the fundamental cornerstones for Model Based Development. Their relevance is essential when dealing with code generation in the safety-critical domain. This article presents the experience of a railway signaling systems manufacturer on this issue.

Currently, a high percentage of accidents in railway systems are accounted to human factors. As a consequence, safety engineers try to take into account this factor in risk assessment. However, human reliability data are very difficult to quantify, thus, qualitative methods are often used in railway system’s risk assessments. Modeling of human errors through probabilistic approaches has shown s...

GSM-Railways (GSM-R) is an obsolete mobile technology with a number of shortcomings in terms of capacity and capability. These shortcomings become a major issue for railways as GSM-R may limit the number of running trains in some areas and it cannot support advanced data services. Hence, alternative technologies, such as LTE, have to be considered as a future railway communication technology. T...

EU regulations require that public transportation systems are accessible for everyone without any restrictions for People with Reduced Mobility. This does not only refer to disabled people, but also other groups of people with reduced mobility such as elderly people, passengers with baby prams, outsize and large luggage items etc. i.e. all people with some kind of reduced mobility, in order to ...

This article describes a next-generation architecture for wireless communications, based on mobile phone carriers (GPRS) and broadband (WiFi), developed for the field of railways and allowing "train-to-earth" communications. This communication channel aims to complement traditional railway communication systems and its benefits make the deployment of new services, such as passenger oriented ser...