European Driver's Desk field tests under 'real life' conditions.

Project Description

Even nowadays in a unified Europe with advanced liberalisation of the rail transport sector  and high competition from other modes of transport several technical and organisational barriers still hamper the rail traffic crossing the network borders of European rail operators. In the light of increased international traffic these setbacks are challenging the competitiveness of the railroad system compared to other modes of transport. Next to several different contact line voltages and non compatible signalling systems the variety of drivers desks with different operational procedures in use also hamper the smooth rail transport across Europe.

Due to different operations regulations, different historical developments etc., the driver´s desks differ in arrangement, functionality and in operation „philosophy“. Even within the fleet of one operator one can find different driver´s desks on different engines. This causes, next to higher training costs, also the danger of operating errors during critical situations due to different indicators and control elements in different locomotives.

For this reason three EC financed projects namely EUDD (European Drivers Desk), MODTRAIN/EUCAB and EUDDplus were  initiated in sequence with the aim to strengthen the competitiveness of the European rail system by the development of a new unified and modular driver´s desk for heavy rail vehicles. The aim of EUDD was to establish the idea of a unified driver´s desk for European locomotives and to establish the framework recommendations for such an ambitious project. Within MODTRAIN/EUCAB, as well as other components on the train, the functionality of the drivers desk was further tested in a mock up and a simulator to enhance the practicability of the design. Finally EUDDplus is used to demonstrate the concepts of the unified drivers desk on a locomotive under „real world“ conditions on the test ring in Wildenrath/Germany.

• Project poster – English (PDF)
• Project overview – German (PDF)

Publications

• L. Huebner, D. Miglianico, C. Karsten, M. Barta, X. Zubillaga:
  "EUDDplus - a driver´s desk for Europe (PDF)";
  RTR European Rail Technology Review, 3 (2010), S. 26 - 31.
• L. Huebner, D. Miglianico, C. Karsten, M. Barta, X. Zubillaga:
  "EUDDplus - Realisierung eines europäischen Lokführerstandskonzeptes (PDF)";
  ETR Eisenbahntechnische Rundschau, 9 (2010), S. 532 - 538.
• X. Zubillaga, M. Barta, C. Karsten, M. Rentzsch:
  "Human Factors Evaluation of a Standardized Drivers Desk under "Real Life" Conditions (PDF)";
  Vortrag: Revitalisation of Economy - New Challenge for European Railways, Zilina (eingeladen); 26.05.2010 - 27.05.2010; in: "EURO - Zel 2010", Technische Universität Zilina, (2010), ISBN: 978-80-554-0199-7; 8 S.
• X. Zubillaga, M. Barta, C. Karsten, M. Rentzsch, D. Miglianico, F. Delooz:
  "Usability testing of the future standardized European Driver´s Desk under "real world" conditions (PDF)";
  Vortrag: 9th World Congress of Railway Research, Lille; 22.05.2011 - 26.05.2011; in: "9th World Congress of Railway Research", (2011), S. 1 - 9.
• L. Hübner, C. Karsten, M. Barta: "Multimodale Gestaltung von Bedienkonzepten am Beispiel des einheitlichen europäischen Lokführerstandes" Vortrag: 9. Berliner Werkstatt MMS, Berlin; 5.10.2011 - 7.10.2011

Participants

• Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Sabine T. Köszegi
• Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Matthias Barta
• Dipl. Ing. Xavier Zubillaga

Project Partners

• List of Project Partners (PDF)