Keeping trains moving smoothly through the depot and meeting stringent safety regulations requires meticulous co-ordination between drivers, maintenance teams, operations staff and management. A dependable, dedicated communications system is a prerequisite to getting the job done, and this is achieved with MOTOTRBO™ Capacity Plus digital radio technology.
Bombardier Transportation offers complete rail solutions, from design to build, operation and maintenance. In the U.K, it is responsible for maintaining the entire Virgin Voyager Cross Country Fleet, ensuring the smooth running of 78 Voyager trains covering 56,000 miles a day and transporting over 50,000 people
The Challenge
Train drivers need to get the trains on and off stands in the maintenance depot as efficiently as possible, without compromising safety or routine checks and services. Any delays could cause bottlenecks or incidents which could have a serious impact on daily operations. Disruptions to services could also result in severe penalties, so it’s crucial that all the different work groups collaborate to maximise productivity.
Bombardier Transportation needed a durable, reliable communications system that would enable numerous workgroups to have their own dedicated channels and share voice and data communication, as well as the ability to have private one-to-one calls and to override communications in the event of an emergency. It also sought a solution to facilitate the monitoring, management and recording of all radio traffic.
Motorola Solutions partner DTS.Solutions (UK) Ltd spent a night observing operations at Bombardier’s maintenance depot to determine how the MOTOTRBO™ digital radio system could enhance safety and productivity. They recommended MOTOTRBO™ Capacity Plus with Transmit Interrupt and TRBOnet Enterprise dispatch software.
The Result
Two Capacity Plus-enabled DR 3000 repeaters provide a scalable, single-site digital trunking solution that doubles the capacity of Bombardier’s conventional MOTOTRBO™ system. This allows an increased number of radio users to share communication on the same system, without having to add new frequencies. It is cost-effective and provides a centralised communications system. An emergency power source is available as a 24-hour back-up in the event of a power failure.
A key feature of the system is Transmit Interrupt, which enables transmissions to be interrupted so that all talk groups can instantly and simultaneously receive a distress call in an emergency. This is vital to ensure staff safety and can help avoid an incident if a train needs to be stopped immediately.
Personnel are equipped with robust DP4400e portable radios that have an emergency button to alert supervisors if an incident occurs and programmable buttons which make it possible to send text messages more quickly and use one-touch dialling. Management teams are using a mixture of the compact DP3441e and DP3661e models. The latter of these has a display for easy navigation and quick reading of text messages. The radios’ superior audio quality ensures that communications remain clear throughout the noisy depot.
A TRBOnet Enterprise dispatch software application, developed by Motorola Solutions’ application partner Neocom Software, makes it possible for dispatchers to communicate with subscribers via a personal computer, identify which groups are communicating at any given time and which radios are turned on or off, improving the monitoring and management of radio traffic. It also enables Bombardier Transportation to record all voice communications for safety and training purposes.
DTS.Solutions (U.K) Ltd are proud to support several other Bombardier Transportation depots across the UK including Etches Park Depot in Derby and Willesden Depot in London.
