The Certification department of Multitel is an independent laboratory for the ERTMS certification, specialized in testing solutions, as a support for the certification and validation of industrial solutions and components, in particular for the railway signalling sector (ERTMS). It provides R&D in the design of new tools (hardware and software) as reference for the whole railway sector.

Multitel participates in a number of ERTMS R&D activities, developing ERTMS tests solutions and services for the European Railway Agency and the European Comission, the industry and infrastructure managers. Examples of test solutions and services are:

  • Component testing: Subset-076 (EVC – onboard train computer), Subset-085 (Balise and BTM testing) and Subset-074 (STM) testing.
  • Maintenance solutions: balise quality of signal analysis tool and hardware, and services and testing facilities for the migration of train trackside infrastructure to newer standards.
  • Train/Track Validation: MultiRailLab can provide in laboratory early detection of train/track validation problems. Actually, we can provide full validation of new lines as well of new trains on existing tracks, based on project data, gradients, operational and engineering rules, balise and radio telegrams.

The Multitel ERTMS laboratory is also capable of testing complex environments, with multiple trains and its interactions with multiple onboard equipment (European Vital Computer – EVC), Radio Block Centres (RBC) or Interlock equipment (IXL), with our simulators or against real equipment (interfaces might need to be implemented in a case-by-case basis). These tests can be used to plan train traffic, test train/track interoperability issues among different manufacturers and to optimise resource consumption.

The ERTMS Laboratory of Multitel complies with the latest TSI requirements and the latest EC directives on interoperability of the trans-European rail system (Conventional Rail TSI on CCS (2006/679/EC), High Speed TSI on CCS (2006/860/EC) and 2010/79/EC), more precisely against SRS 2.2.2 and SRS 2.3.0D (for which Multitel has actively participated to its definition in the scope of the TEN 2006 project).

References: As of April 2011, 4 EVC manufacturers have already choosen Multitel for test solutions. Yet, a number of Eurobalise and DMI suppliers have performed tests in our laboratories. Also, a growing number of infrastructure managers are using our services to validate their track signalling implementations and the onboard units that are running on their infrastructure. Besides, Multitel provides ERTMS expertise for ERA (European Railway Agency), the EEIG (ERTMS Users Group) for the development of the new ERTMS baseline 3 test standards, test campaigns and validation.