Bazan, M.; Manz, H.; Schnieder, E.:
Economic and cost-effective analysis for safety relevant localisation by means of satellite based systems tasks in comparison to traditional localisation techniques.
EURO-ZEL 2011, Zilina, Slovakia, Juni 2011.
Nowadays many low density railway lines are not operated cost efficient. The costs of operation and maintenance are high and the line exploitation is low. To enhance the usage of low traffic density railway lines more cost-effective automatic on-board localisation systems that offer an identical or better safety will be attractive in the market. The investment in a satellite based train localisation system is a possibility to reduce the high costs by traditional human or track side technical localisation and to improve the railways economic efficiency. The proposed localisation unit consists of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-receiver, an eddy current sensor and a digital map [DemoOrt 2009]. Its efficiency was tested and demonstrated in Germany and Slovakia. Various projects have dealt with the topic of satellite based train localisation systems and shown its technical advantages. The purpose of this paper is to assess its economical efficiency. In future the proposed localisation unit shall use Galileo as GNSS and will benefit from its guaranteed performance according integrity, continuity and accuracy [Galileo 2002] [Schnieder, 2009]. The localisation unit can therefore serve as safety relevant localisation device within the European Train Control System (ETCS) Level 3. This localisation unit is still under development. The proposed technical concept highlights the safety and economical advantages because of the possibilities to reduce costs, to increase the capacity of the tracks as well as safety, dependability and liability. This innovative system can be expected to be a cost-effective system because of the signals and energy saving and the reduction of staff. Nevertheless, its implementation would comprise the initial investment costs as well as the conversion and installation costs. But in spite of this the system could be from the commercial, environmental and administrative point of view attractive for interested decision makers. In order to assess the suitability of its application the activity-based costing model is a good tool to identify the system functions and compare the costs with those of the traditional system. To do this some topics have been analysed: • The necessary resources • The life cycle of the system • The costs of the preventive and corrective maintenance • The necessary staff • The energy savings • Costs of tracks and locomotives conversion. Projects dealing with satellite based train localisation show the necessity of finding a viable solution ready for the railway market on secondary or rural railway lines. This innovative system is a good possibility to do this more effectively. The investigation results show that an important localisation costs reduction can be achieved mainly because: • Salary costs using the satellite based train localisation system are 80% less than using benchmark systems [Bazán 2010]. • Around 85% cable lines will be saved. More costs can also be saved because many signals are unnecessary and they represent an important saving [Kauffmann 2010]. To conclude, the paper presents the economic analysis of the innovative system under consideration of its technical advantages and disadvantages. This will include a cost calculation and cost-benefit analysis.