Signaltechnik im 21. Jahrhundert

Over the last years European railways have steadily lost market share in the modal split of the transport modes road, rail, air traffic and waterways. One aspect here is that the majority of innovations in the railways sector are hardly market driven. New systems often focus on reducing internal efforts instead of concentrating on added value for the end customers — passenger and freight traffic. Yet primarily European rail main lines need to elaborate on their strategic advantages compared to their major competitors road and air traffic. In this context the European initiative ERTMS/ETCS is currently pursued with the goal to help winning back market share for railways in the modal split of all transport modes, both for passenger and freight traffic. This article reflects on pertaining requirements and functionalities from the viewpoint of a railway infrastructure operator. It is emphasized that migration to these modern systems of the 21st century needs to be accomplished quickly. This in turn will enable railway infrastructure operators to provide attractive transport slots to their customers (rolling stock and logistics operators) which consequently leads to significant advantages for railways within the competition of all transport modes.