Bane NOR, the state-owned agency responsible for the Norwegian national railway infrastructure, has contracted Siemens to upgrade the signaling equipment of the entire Norwegian rail network to the European Train Control System (ETCS). The contract also includes services for 25 years and is worth around 800 million Euros in total. According to Siemens, it is the largest single delivery ever for Siemens rail infrastructure business.

Siemens will convert the entire Norwegian railroad network, approximately 4,200 kilometres of track, to ETCS Level 2. Commissioning of the rollout lines is scheduled to be completed by 2034.

Efficient and reliable

“This conversion will save much hardware, allow for maximized capacity and provide the basis for data- based minimized preventive maintenance’, says Michael Peter, CEO of the Mobility Division. This will provide passengers with a more efficient and reliable travel experience, ‘with greater punctuality, increased capacity and more throughput.”

“This marks the start of modernization of the railway network in Norway”, says Sverre Kjenne, Executive Vice President, Bane NOR. “Bane NOR is creating the railway of the future with one of Norway’s largest digitization projects. We are confident that Siemens, by winning the contract to provide a new digital signal system, will contribute significantly to our network’s modernization.”

Lifecycles

In 2015, Norway committed implementing the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) on its national railway network. Most of today’s relay-based systems will reach the end of their designed lifecycles during the project’s timescale. As the signaling equipment ages, it is increasingly difficult to maintain, and reliability will impaired. Bane NOR will invest more than two billion euros in the digitalization and automation of its railway network over a ten-year period.