A Safety Management and Signaling System Integration Method for Communication-Based Train Control System

The safety and the correctness of signaling system not only relate to the safety and efficiency of the rail transit operation, but also link with the life safety of passengers. In order to guarantee the safety of a signaling system for metro, the safety certificate for the trial operation with carrying passengers must be obtained. In this paper, a suitable safety management and signaling system integration model are explored according to the CENELEC standards and applied in China. With taking account of the strict safety requirements for the Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) system, a safety assurance and assessment method based on safety verification and validation process was put forward. This method was applied in every phase of the CBTC system development life cycle to monitor and control each activity in the life cycle and to review each document in system development process. At the same time, this method is also used to ensure the traceability of relevant documents and to test all the functions of the whole system sufficiently and completely. So that the safety operation of train control system can be ensured. Up to now, the independently developed CBTC system with the safety management had been applied in many urban rail transit lines of Beijing, such as Yizhuang Line, Changping Line, Line No. 14, and Line No. 7. The CBTC signaling systems of these projects have been authorized by the safety certification from a third party, e.g., Lloyd Register which is a British company and famous for the safety verification and validation process. © 2017, The Author(s).