Keywords: train integrity monitoring system, ETCS level 3, moving block, localisation.

In the railway sector, experts anticipate considerable reductions of costs by supplanting conventional infrastructure equipment with digitalised solutions. As a consequence, distances between trains can be reduced and track capacity increased, correspondingly. The necessity to protect consecutive trains from lost vehicles of preceding trains leads to the need to monitor continuously the completeness of a train, which is also referred to as the integrity of a train, as intended in the European Train Control System (ETCS) level 3. The development of a safe corresponding train integrity monitoring system (TIMS) for Europe is still a challenge as many freight trains lack a continuous electrical line. The purpose of this work is to give a short scientific overview of the main concepts for possible future TIMSs. For this, the publication is based on the work of the authors for the Swiss Federal Railways within the smartrail 4.0 industry programme in the year 2018. At that time, they conducted a study on approaches to TIMSs. As a result, they researched more than 600 publications. Now, in 2022, the authors realised an update of that study. In this publication, the selection of concept classes for TIMSs grounds on that research work. The authors conclude that train integrity monitoring in Europe is currently based on axle counters and track circuits, so these two concept classes were chosen. In addition, the authors identified three main classes of possible future TIMSs: distributed acoustic sensing, end-of-train device and digital automatic coupling. After that, the writers explain the selected five concept classes for TIMSs. As results, the advantages and disadvantages of the five concept classes for TIMSs are discussed. In the conclusion, the writers focus on the concept class of end-of-train devices as a bridge class to the concept class of the digital automatic coupling. For the authors, axle counters and track circuits are not of interest due to their difficulties of high infrastructure costs and especially the problem of fixed block section lengths, which does not support concepts based on the idea of moving block. From the authors’ point of view, distributed acoustic sensing is still associated with significant open questions that will to be answered in the future. Finally, the authors elucidate the contribution of this publication as a categorically new comparison of concept classes for possible future TIMSs, as a scientific publication comparing concepts for possible future TIMSs is still not findable.

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