GNSS Centre of Excellence (GCE) as a chief manager and coordinator was successful in a public tender as part of Beta2 program by Technological Agency of the Czech Republic (TA CR) therefor starting August 2019 GCE will oversee a new project – Proposal and condition verification for implementation of safe train locators based on GNSS systems on Czech railway network – project TrainLOC. In this project GCE together with AŽD Praha LLC, University of Pardubice and Railway Research Institute, j.s.c. will focus on the level of quality and the environmental influence on the reception of GNSS signal along the Czech railway network.
From the usage of GNSS on railways will benefit both passengers and railway companies, specifically in higher level of safety, more accurate information and higher operation efficiency. European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (GSA) in its Plan for EGNSS usage in safety railway systems aims to develop a system using GNSS for train location ready for certification in individual states by the year 2022. The main challenge is the high precision requirement so the railway control system can distinguish the location of trains traveling on a parallel track.
TrainLOC project will be focused on detecting the level of influence of elements of railway environment and tracks surroundings on the precision of GNSS signal. The project will include testing on the test railway circuit in Velim to analyse data from realistic environment and to examine hypothesis. The deliverables are going to be as following, a summary research report, a set of recommendations to state administration authorities on how to measure the quality of GNSS signal on railways and certified method for certification of location systems using GNSS. The project is financed by TA CR and is going to last until the end of 2021. Thanks to this project the Czech Republic will be ready for the implementation of GNSS into train operation.
Program Beta2 aims to support research and innovation to meet the needs of state administration authorities. Its main objectives are development and improvement of processes, mechanisms, services and activities of state administration authorities and to create a foundation for future national strategies. The total budget of the program is 1,6 billion of Czech crowns for the 5 years period 2017-2021.