CLEARSY enhances its position in the railway signalling area. After having acquired ERSA company last July, CLEARSY keeps consolidating its ERTMS activity and opens new markets with its new products. Along with that the company prepares itself for the next challenge concerning the same area: the introduction into ERTMS railway signalling system of the standardized function of automatic trains driving.
ERTMS technology (European Rail Traffic Management System) is ERSA company’s speciality and concerns main-line railway area. CBTC technology (Communication Based Train Control) is a product issued from urban transport. These two systems enable to give a run command according to itinerary and traffics interlocking status. However, unlike ERTMS, CBTC system authorizes self-driving since many years. CLEARSY has made its speciality to analyse CBTC security systems (New-York subway, Paris subway).
With ERSA acquisition last July, CLEARSY enhances its ERTMS offer – the subsidiary of CLEARSY company exists in Strasbourg since 2016 and offers new products: wide range of training course simulators, test bed for on-board and ground systems as well as reference tools (TSW, TSD) employed by the sector in the context of European projects. M. Patrick Deutsch knows well the ERSA: he was its cofounder before becoming a head of ERTMS activity in Strasbourg. He explains: This acquisition opens the door for us to new markets and particularly international ones. As ERTMS team of CLEARSY was already involved in last generation DMI (DMI ETCS SIL 2 baseline 3 software development), the range of products provided by ERSA in the field of testing or training course is likely to attract manufacturers (UNISIG members or markets newcomers), infrastructure managers, railway operators, certifying laboratories and training companies.
Looking further ahead, the combination of ERTMS of ERSA and CBTC of CLEARSY skills prepares Aix-based society for the next challenge in the railway industry: the introduction of standardized function of automatic trains driving into signalling ERTMS system. Patrick Deutch specifies, that ATD (automatic trains driving) will take into consideration all the experience gained in CBTC area, our area, in order to develop the systems allowing to reach GoA3 automation levels (with onboard personnel) and GoA4 (without onboard personnel). This is a timely convergence, even though a new version of ERTMS is currently being developed that marks a convergence of features between urban and mainline transport.
