Intelligent Railway Transportation Control Techniques and Its Prospect

Railway transportation is a vital part of the national economy of a country, and it is especially important for developing countries. Railway transportation is closely related to the improvement of traffic safety and traffic efficiency. In this paper, several key concepts in railway traffic control are firstly summed up; four types of intelligent railway traffic control systems are secondly analyzed. As to the four systems, the intelligent train operation automatic control has stepped into a new era-CBTC in which the ATP is a key part. The techniques of Chinese railway in this field have become very advanced. MAS is the development trend of CBTC, the concept of which has long been proposed in Chinese railway in the 1960's. At present, the ETCS/ERTMS of European Union keeps ahead in this field. Intelligent station interlocking control system is closely related to the safety and efficiency of station operation. Although starting relatively late in this field, Chinese railway has made great achievements and with its own characteristics. YACS and wide area intelligent dispatching and supervision system are also mentioned in this paper. It is pointed out that Intelligent Railway Transportation System (ITS-R) is a major part of the whole intelligent transportation system. Finally, the development trend in this field is proposed, and it is predicted that China will make great progress in this field.