Measuring and analysing the efficiency of an automatic train protection system

Starting from the formulated needs and the description of the formal technical choices which have been done ten years ago, the paper proposes to analyse the feedback experience at two levels: the impacts of a speed control system on the practice of train driving and risk perception, and the impacts on the global system performance, in accordance with the RAMS criteria. RFF, as the new owner of the French railway infrastructure since 1997, is now implementing new ATP systems specific to transit lines. Although the RFF responsibility is limited to the infrastructure, the search for the best efficiency of such systems requires control of both onboard and lineside equipment to ensure the global availability of the system. Therefore, the infrastructure owner has to be involved from the technical conception of onboard and lineside equipment until the operating and maintenance rules. The paper describes how RFF intends to intervene into: The technical conception The operational availability targets The operational rules The maintenance rules The technical means used to measure the availability of the ATP presently in implementation.