ERTMS (European Railway Traffic Management System), namely the most advanced system for managing rail transport, is about to be adopted throughout Europe, bringing significant benefits to the rail industry and to passenger travel experience.

Currently, how broadly is ERTMS employed in Italy?

Italy was one of the first European countries to adopt ERTMS Level 2 on the new lines of the high-speed network: since the early 2000s, many investments have been made in high-speed lines and in 2004 the first lines equipped with ERTMS were built. By December 2021, 780 km of lines had been equipped with ERTMS and its deployment continued “at high speed”!

In June 2022, RFI (Rete Ferroviaria Italiana) won the 2.7 billion tender for the nationwide design and implementation of ERTMS technology, that will involve 4,220 km of railway lines throughout Italy, plus about 700 km of lines in Sicily, Lazio, Abruzzo and Umbria.

Final goal: ERTMS on the entire national network by 2036

All these interventions are aimed at achieving the goal set by the European Union for the implementation of technological projects financed by the PNRR: to equip 3,400 kilometers of network with ERTMS by 2026.

This goal is in line with RFI’s “accelerated” Plan, which intends to accelerate the implementation of this technology on its entire network by 2036.

Once the “migration” is completed, the national network will have about 16,800 km of lines equipped with ERTMS, and the entire command, control and signaling system will be renewed.

The benefits of ERTMS for Italian railways

ERTMS will bring significant benefits to Italian rail transport and infrastructure (and of course to the entire European system as well):

• Increased safety, e.g. through the introduction of maneuver protection functionality, increased level crossing protection, on-board calculation of release speed.

• Development of interoperability with rail operators from different countries and consequent improvement of interconnection between networks.

• Increased performance, reliability, and punctuality of trains, important factors for both freight and passenger transport.

• Reduced maintenance costs, thanks to savings in the cost of installing light signals and cables that are no longer needed, and to more sophisticated electronic equipment.

• Increased capacity at major urban nodes, which allows smoother traffic flow.

The future of EMC shielding

As with the European system, the development of ERTMS in Italy requires and will require high-performance electromagnetic shielding to ensure its operation and safety. Possible interference must be eliminated through appropriate solutions that are not penalizing but enhancing.

The essential characteristics of shielding for ERTMS are:

1. Effectiveness in decreasing electromagnetic fields, especially low-frequency ones.
2. Lightness in order not to penalize train performance.
3. Adaptability so it can be applied to existing devices and vehicles.
4. Recyclability to meet the needs of a more sustainable mobility, also from an environmental point of view.

If you are looking for a shielding solution that has all these advantages, discover SKUDOTECH® and contact us for more information.