Brussels, 15/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 12 December, the European Commission approved a Dutch state aid measure to increase aid for the installation of the European Train Control System (ETCS), the new European standard for train control, from €15 million to €20 million.
The aim of the aid measure is to lower the investment costs for freight locomotives on the Betuwe Route between Rotterdam and Germany, which will be opened in January 2007. Dutch authorities have partially borne the installation costs of the ETCS in freight locomotives which will use this line. The budgetary increase was not found to be disproportionate since railway operators will still pay half the overall investment costs of the installation of the ETCS on their fleet.
The ETCS concept is simple: information, transmitted from the ground to the train, is used by an on-board computer to calculate the speed and slow the train down if necessary. More than 20 different ground systems are currently being used in Europe. International traffic is seriously hampered by the lack of compatibility. To remove this obstacle, the ETCS has to be fitted along the tracks and on trains. As it is not technically possible to switch immediately from the old national systems to the new standard on the whole European network, some trains need to be fitted with the ETCS alongside the existing systems during the transition period. The introduction of the new norm therefore requires considerable investment by railway companies. (ol)