16. Support system to determine the signal arrangement

To improve track layout, including building new stations, a process called "an examination of the signal arrangement" is required to review the current signal arrangement.
In this process, the following tasks need to be repeated until the headway target is satisfied: (1) prepare a signal aspect transition system to show transitions in signal aspect based on the proposed signal arrangement; (2) calculate the headway to show the interval of train operation based on this; and (3) check if the headway satisfies the target value (Fig. 1).
The proposed signal arrangement needs to be adjusted in order to create a signal aspect transition system, requiring a lot of time for review to determine the signal arrangement.
In addition, this process needs knowledge on creating a train performance curve having the requisite conditions to achieve the longest deceleration distance from the perspective of signalling safety.

Therefore, a support system that can calculate both the signal aspect transition system and headway immediately has been developed by devising a train performance curve preparation function taking signal aspect transition system conditions into consideration and a calculation method for deceleration distance between each signal, and implementing the algorithm owned by RTRI to calculate the train performance curve at high speed (Fig. 2).
Through a verification test, it was confirmed that this system could evaluate in a few seconds the required the signal arrangement for a route about 15 km long and having 20 signals.

Since this system can automatically perform the calculations to evaluate both the signal aspect transition system and the headway, it is expected to shorten the time required for the review process of the signal arrangement.