Intelligent emergency management system for railway transport

Abstract

Nowadays, a major safety challenge in rail transport is to manage the incidents and emergencies in the most efficient possible way. The current contingency plans tend to be based on static procedures not taking into account how real-time conditions affect them. Consequently, the decision-making process may well suffer delays and the possibility of occurrence for human mistakes could raise since the required measures are expected to be carried out under important pressure. In this study, focused on commuter trains, railway safety is enhanced by a new intelligent emergency management system which aims to support the operator tasks in a realtime incident or emergency situation. This cyber-physical system is composed by two main modules: one on board the train, including sensors and GPS, and other integrated in the control centre addressing four computational models. Those models cover (1) the detection of different types of incidents/emergencies using the information received from on board sensors, (2) the calculation of the evacuation process (if necessary), (3) the selection, estimation of routes and communication with emergency services required for each event, and finally (4) a provision of actions to support the operator decisions. Communication between modules is provided by GPRS due to actual technology available in the pilot trains. This system has been implemented in an actual railway line in Cantabria (Santander-Cabezón de la Sal) and three practical demonstrations were defined based on several use cases, which were tested using a pilot facility incorporating all sensors and devices installed in those trains. Results demonstrated the benefits of the new system.