Transport Security

Securing the world's highest railway

By Jianggan Li | 2 August 2008

The new Qinghai-Tibet railway passes through harsh terrains. The command centre ensures its safety and security through Geospatial Information Systems.

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Running railways in China is never an easy job.

During the recent re-shuffle of the State Council, the cabinet of the People’s Republic, many of the Soviet legacy ministries were either combined or dismantled, the Ministry of Railways stays, amid the enormous responsibility it has and the immense need for construction of new railways. Among the recent endeavours that the Ministry has undertaken, the most eye-catching one is undoubtedly the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Despite the political polemics around its operations, the railway is undeniably an engineering marvel.

Linking Lhasa, capital of the Autonomous Region of Tibet and Xining, capital of Qinghai Province, the 1900 kilometres Qinghai-Tibet Railway crosses the ‘roof of the world’ – the Tibetan plateau at more than 4000 metres altitude.

The section between Lhasa and Golmud, Qinghai’s second largest city, set several world engineering records when it was opened in 2006. More than 960 kilometres (597 miles) of track run at extreme altitudes, and more than half of the track runs across permafrost; the world’s highest rail track crosses over Tanggula Pass at 5,072 meters (16,640 feet). At a cost of US $4.2 billion, the railway also holds the world record for the highest rail tunnel and railway station and has 675 bridges. Pilgrims from Lhasa and other parts of Tibet can now rest in the state-of-the-art sleeper wagon for their 26 hour trip to attend the Sunning of the Buddha Festival in Xining, a journey which would otherwise take days to accomplish. Goods and resources can now be funnelled into the Autonomous Region much more efficiently, in line with the Government’s master plan of bridging the economic gap between the west and the costal east.

To safeguard passengers from altitude sickness, passenger cars are pressurised and have supplemental oxygen systems. Even the train’s diesel motor locomotives are specifically designed to operate at high altitudes.

The safety of goods and passengers is assured by the railway’s modern control centre that monitors real-time information on the train’s location and speed, oxygen levels, and the electrical system. The control centre is the result of collaboration between the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Bureau and the State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety, at Beijing Jiaotong University, which jointly develop the Comprehensive Monitoring System of Railway Operation and Safety for Tibetan Line.

The system

During the railway’s construction, planning engineers needed to design a control centre that would receive and display data from the variety of monitoring devices and combine them with data from the railway’s computerised databases. They also needed to display photographs and satellite images of the landscape surrounding the tracks to support the emergency response planning and rescue system.

The control system needed to help keep railway downtime to a minimum, monitor equipment, minimise maintenance needs, and provide a detailed record of environmental conditions along the track.

Geospatial Information System (GIS) was adopted to integrate all the information and represent it on maps of the control centre. The State Key Laboratory of Rail Traffic Control and Safety at Beijing Jiaotong University and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Bureau jointly developed the web-enabled GIS system based on the technology provided by ESRI.

The resulting system, called the Comprehensive Monitoring System of Railway Operation and Safety for the Tibetan Line, displays plane and 3D maps, tracks essential information such as a train’s real-time location and current monitoring status.

The system includes a desktop interface to support data processing and provides statistical analysis tools. The spatial data can be published on the train company’s intranet. Applications for comprehensive operation monitoring and emergency response have also been developed.

Data collection

“The main challenge is how to ensure the accuracy of the data and lower the cost of initial data collection,” says Qin.

A combination of different technologie was used to collect supporting data. The main source comes from CAD design data from the planning and design department and satellite imagery of the surrounding landscape.

Visual record of the track and landscape along the rail route, including precise location coordinates for the images, is also made using a survey vehicle equipped with a camcorder, camera, GPS, and digital compass to record data.

“The survey vehicle is mounted on the platform of a rail vehicle, and both images and video clips are recorded by the system,” explains Qin, saying that regular surveying is conducted to make sure the information is updated.

This update by the survey vehicle is scheduled to take place every one or two years.

Handheld terminals are employed to update the coordinates of devices and facilities along the line, while those key facilities on the rail line are updated automatically by the linear position of the railway itself.

Additional data comes from digital elevation model (DEM), 3DS Model, and databases were also represented in the GIS environment.

To resolve high altitude communication and data transmission challenges, a special mobile communication technology called Global System for Mobile Communications for Railway (GSM-R) was used to transmit real-time location of moving trains and other data to the control centre.

Monitoring & Response

All real-time monitor information such as train data (location, speed, staff, passengers), passenger car conditions (temperature, balance), and the electrical system (voltage, current) are displayed on digital maps in the command centre. Weather conditions and images along the route can also be retrieved.

The size of the area displayed as well as the resolution can be adjusted by the operators, who might need to zoom in on a particular section of the rail line.

In addition to browsing maps, users can query and display infrastructure features by location; retrieve geographic data, photographs, and video; and manage and search for metadata.

“To make sure that operators are familiarised with the system and able to respond correctly during emergencies, we’ve conducted collective training and individual tutoring for them,” notes Qin. “The emphasis is how to operate on electronic maps as well as how to deal with different emergency scenarios.”

When a problem arises, message alert icons appear on the map to give the operator the location of any problems and point to the relevant data.

“The alert will be triggered when the electricity supply or the operations of the trains are disrupted, as well as during extreme weather conditions such as strong wind,” Qin explains. “We have different contingency plans for different alerts. When the emergency is resolved or the system resumed, the alarm will removed.”

The centre’s emergency response system supports the emergency commander’s need to capture, analyse, and process location data vital for organising a response.

A 3D visualisation of the land surrounding a rescue scene and produce static rescue maps such as maps showing potential helicopter landing zones. These printed maps provide information needed to coordinate rescue teams and relief trains and to identify possible sources of the problem. In addition, the center’s intranet system provides a way to coordinate efforts with other sectors such as public safety, hospitals, and local authorities.

One year after the official Qinghai-Tibet Railway opening, the railway has carried about 11 million tons of freight and 2.02 million passengers—mostly college students, tourists, and business people—with very few incidents.

“The system ensures comprehensive safety and protection based on GIS technology for the Qinghai-Tibet Railway,” Qin is proud about the system.”It is achieved by availing large amount of real-time data on an integrated visual platform.”

“We will continue to develop and strengthen the integrity of the applications,” Qin adds. The planned rich applications include 3D analysis of accidents, planning of goods and materials for emergency response and establishment of professional alert model.