Keywords: railway signalling system, wayside object controller, renewable energy, life cycle cost.

Trackside equipment and signalling devices are controlled by wayside object controllers (OC). Radio communication systems enable the wireless transmission of command control and signalling (CCS) data, which can help to reduce the cost of cabling and installation. However, for regional lines with low traffic volumes in rural areas, most of them are non-electrified, so a special cable for powering the wayside object controller system is still needed to be installed along the track, which would significantly increase the construction cost and maintenance work. A smart wayside object controller (SWOC) is suggested, which would be autonomous, self-sufficient, remotely-monitorized and locally-powered to ensure its proper operation, so the cabling and installation work can be totally removed. In order to demonstrate its viability and benefits over the existing systems, this work studies the possibility to use different renewable energy sources to power the system and then estimates the life cycle cost (LCC) of the SWOC in long-term operation. This study shows that in most places, it is sufficient to use 100% renewable energy sources to power the SWOC, trackside equipment and signalling devices. Compared with the existing system, the SWOC shows a significant cost saving in long-term operation by removing cabling and installation, reducing trackside maintenance and replacing the power supply with renewable energy power sources. Therefore, the SWOC shows its benefits over the existing system in both economical and environmental aspects. In the end, some suggestions on future development and implementation of SWOC are given.

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