A New Collision Avoidance Strategy for Chinese Train Control System

There are still enormous amount of collision between trains even if comprehensive and complex technology, such as train control system, is extensively deployed in the infrastructure which should help to avoid such collisions. Experiences from aviation, maritime, and road transport systems have shown that the probability of collisions can be significantly reduced with collision avoidance systems basing on direct vehicle-to-vehicle communication on-board, which do hardly require infrastructure components. Additional Collision Avoidance System overlay Train Control System (CASOTCS) for Chinese railway, which is independent of the regular control mechanism, is provided in this paper. CASOTCS unit architecture and its key issues: position detection, direct train-to-train communication and collision surveillance resolution are also discussed. CASOTCS receives and evaluates the information broadcasted by other infinity trains, if a potential collision is detected, lead to collision alerts and avoidance resolution advisories. CASOTCS has the potential to increase safety and efficiency in the future, such as shorten the distance between trains.