Page 166 - 捷運技術 第35期

158 KIN LING LEE An Advanced Command, Control And Communication (C3) Solution For Transit Systems

1、Introduction

Since the advent of the railway and in line with its traffic growth, devices, systems and
processes had been continually developed to allow efficient, cost-effective and safe railway
operation. This ranges from the early adoption of hand signaling mechanism, morse codes,
signalling equipment, to the fully computerized and automated metro systems of today.
A common thread running through all these developments is the need to gather and
disseminate accurate and real-time information for the efficient and safe operation of the railway
network. With the rapid advancement of Information Technology（IT）over the last 30 years, the
centralized gathering and analysis of information and remote control became a reality.

Nowadays, modern railway control rooms are generally equipped with an integrated
supervisory control system for real-time supervision, information gathering analysis and planning.
Currently, various solution vendors offer a variety of design and technologies to meet the demands
of the market.

2、Trends in Railway Control System Applications

The earliest form of application of IT technology was the deployment of SCADA systems for
the supervision of devices and subsystems critical for railway operation; for instance the Power
SCADA system, Environmental Control system and the Automatic Train Supervision system.
Traditional, these systems are built around specific functional requirements that correspond to the
organization divisions typically set up to run the various railway functions. This results in
‘silos-type’ relationship between the functions and subsystems, where each function is supported by
its own system and applications, and forming ‘islands of automation’ with limited inter-systems
communication. Complex administrative and operational processes had to be set up to handle
cross-functional issues.

‘Silos-like’ Unconnected Specialise Subsystems/Applications