The MERMEC Group has won two new contracts with State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD) to supply track measurement services and automatic train examination portals to enforce the railway network’s safety strategy.
The MERMEC Group will assist TCDD with the inspection of 4,150 track kilometres on its lines, performing track geometry, rail profile and rail corrugation inspections on 450 track kilometres of high-speed lines between Ankara and Eskisehir and 3,700 track kilometres of conventional lines. The track measurement campaigns will be completed by the end of 2009.
Three multifunctional train monitoring portals, called automatic train examination stations (ATES), will be installed at critical centres in Ankara, Afyon and Malatya. The centres were selected due to their high traffic density and their strategic position along the line. Each ATES will consist of the following diagnostic solutions:
- Vehicle identification system
- Wheel profile measurement system
- Ultrasonic wheel inspection system
- Wheel surface defects detecting system
- Wheel flatness detecting system
- Brake shoe, brake lining and disc wear detecting system
- Axle box detector
Monitoring portals bound to improve the quality of transport
The data gathered from the monitoring portals will be transmitted to a central control room and analysed for maintenance optimisation and planning. Coaches that are not compliant with the national safety standards will be preventively repaired to improve the quality of transport service as well as overall cost and safety performance.
The MERMEC Group develops cutting-edge technology to advance safety, efficiency and availability of railway and rapid transit networks worldwide, specialising in wayside multifunctional safety portals. The ATES is one of the key products of the railway safety systems offering. Typically installed in critical points along the lines, such as railway tunnels, inhabited places and high-capacity rail links, these portals allow incident prevention through real-time analysis of the following vehicle components: wheels and brakes, clearance gauge, unbalanced and oversized loads, axles and bearings temperatures.
With the new contracts, the MERMEC Group reinforces its global footprint and reconfirms its position as the world leader in diagnostic solutions with more than 500 measuring and monitoring systems supplied worldwide. The group provides products and services in more than 37 countries, with nearly 90 major private and public customers involved in freight and passenger transport, train production, and wheel and rail manufacturing.
The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD) is the state corporation operating the public railway system in Turkey. Founded in 1927, TCDD now operates 8,700km of railway lines and recently opened a new high speed line between Ankara and Istanbul.