The ETCS is a single pan-European signalling system that will secure the single European railway and ensure its safer operation. It will also ensure that trains of railway undertakings can move freely, without problems and from one country to another.
This system replaces a large number of different, mutually incompatible and often obsolete systems which exist in the different countries.
The system consists of 2 major parts - trackside equipment and on-board equipment:
- The mobile or on-board part is mounted on vehicles.
- The trackside or infrastructure part is installed along the lines.
To allow communication between the trackside and the mobile part, in some variants of the ETCS system we also use the GSM-R wireless network.
