Alstom launches new CBTC innovative solution, Urbalis Fluence, at UITP Congress
On 29 May, at the UITP World Congress & Mobility and City Transport Exhibition in Geneva, Alstom presented Axonis, a non-proprietary integrated metro system able to carry up to 45,000 passengers per hour per direction. The system is available in record time and designed to run on a viaduct but also at ground level and underground.
The same day, Alstom also presented Urbalis Fluence, the 1st urban signalling solution that is train centric and train-to-train communication enabling headways to be down to only one minute.
“Innovation is at the heart of our strategy. We remain focused on differentiating ourselves by state-of-the-art technologies and our strong expertise”, said Henri Poupart-Lafarge, President of Alstom Transport. “With these new solutions, we will further strengthen our cooperation with cities to help them solve the challenges they are facing today: congestion, saturation, high pollution, and tight budgets”.
Urbalis Fluence – a breakthrough innovation through simplification
The new Alstom signalling solution has been chosen by the Urban Community of Lille Metropole in France for Line 1 to be delivered in 2015.
Urbalis Fluence is the first vehicle-centric CBTC. Most routing and interlocking functions are efficiently built into the train. This optimal architecture reduces equipment down to 20% and eliminates the need for the traditional split into separate automatic train control and interlocking sub-systems. In addition, Urbalis Fluence is innovative in its use of direct train-to-train communication. The train registers only the track resources it requires to optimise traffic fluidity and communicate with other trains much more quickly, leading to headways reduced from three minutes to only one.
With intervals reduced, Urbalis Fluence increases transport capacity and decreases saturation. Furthermore, the new solution offers higher operation availability (24/7 operations) with extreme flexibility of train movements. Therefore in the event of incidents such as a station closure or a point failure, the solution allows the train to move back to the previous station or bypass the failed point.
Passengers are no longer blocked between stations. Additionally, Urbalis optimises train operations as it enables it to plan its speed according to each situation during the day, allowing 30% energy savings.
The system can be installed on standard and elevated metro lines, metro-trams and automated light transit systems. Urbalis Fluence provides the performance needed for heavy ridership exceeding 1 million passengers per day as well as smaller ones of 10,000 passengers a day. It applies to manual and automatic train operations, and new and older lines alike. It takes less than 24 months to implement the system.
Official video on Urbalis Fluence
Official video on Axonis