ERTMS/ETCS Virtual Coupling: Proof of Concept and Numerical Analysis

Railway infrastructure operators need to push their network capacity up to their limits in high-traffic corridors. Virtual coupling is considered among the most relevant innovations to be studied within the European Horizon 2020 Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking as it can drastically reduce headways and thus increase the line capacity by allowing to dynamically connect two or more trains in a single convoy. This paper provides a proof of concept of Virtual coupling by introducing a specific operating mode within the European rail traffic management system/European train control system (ERTMS/ETCS) standard specification, and by defining a coupling control algorithm accounting for time-varying delays affecting the communication links. To that aim, we define one ploy to enrich the ERTMS/ETCS with Virtual coupling without changing its working principles and we borrow a numerical analysis methodology used to study platooning in the automotive field. The numerical analysis is also provided to support the proof of concept with quantitative results in a case-study simulation scenario.