Railways master technology, reduce dependence on imported technology

Since 2003, Vietnam's railway industry has invested in upgrading infrastructure, including deploying automatic signal systems at many stations to automate the operation of trains avoiding each other.

Notably, the project to invest in the 6502 relay interlock centralized gas power signal system (referred to as 6502 equipment) has a total investment of 2,423 billion VND from preferential foreign loans.

Equipment 6502 includes a shaft counting sensor system, control signals and automatic transmission equipment (train redirection), contributing to ensuring train safety, improving operation efficiency and improving working conditions.

In addition, the railway industry also invests in SSI centralized control signal system according to European standards, using French technology and being monitored through a computer system.

However, after a period of operation, both imported signal systems from abroad revealed many inadequacies, and technical errors often occurred.

At the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, at Van Dien station, where SSI equipment is used, freight car derailments occurred. In 2017, many similar incidents continued to be recorded at stations using SSI systems and 6502 equipment such as Di An (Binh Duong), Yen Vien, Giap Bat, Van Dien (Hanoi).

Hanoi Railway Exploitation Branch also discovered that the SSI system at Giap Bat station often encountered errors in the axle counting device and train direction converter.

By 2018, Saigon Railway Exploitation Branch said that among the 23 stations using centralized gas electrical signal equipment 6502 installed by foreign contractors, up to 12 stations had technical problems after a period of operation.

Faced with this situation, Vietnam Railways Corporation has organized many meetings with relevant units to find solutions to overcome and ensure railway traffic safety. However, at that time, system renovation still depended on foreign countries because Vietnam had not mastered the technology.

The reason is that when handing over the project, the contractor did not transfer the software to control the axle counting system - the component responsible for determining the position of trains on the tracks. Meanwhile, the project has expired its warranty period, making all repair and upgrade needs have to hire foreign experts at a very high cost.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the 6502 relay locking system is also no longer being produced as foreign partners have switched to new generation electronic locking technology. This causes many difficulties for the maintenance, repair and upgrade of the system in Vietnam.

Faced with that urgent requirement, with the consent of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Institute of Applied Technology has chaired and coordinated with Vietnam Railways Corporation, University of Transport and the Institute of Transport Science and Technology to implement the topic "Research, manufacture, and test of concentrated gas-electric train driving control systems applying microcontrol technology" (code CN-12/17).

After 4 years of implementation (2017-2021), the research group mastered the technology, designed and successfully manufactured a complete train control system with full core equipment such as electronic interlock system, axle counting system, LED traffic lights... Thereby, gradually improving the design and manufacturing capacity of domestic railway equipment.

The project's products are developed using modern technology. The entire system, from axle count sensors, traffic lights to interlock devices, has the ability to automatically update operating status via the Internet according to the Internet of Things (IoT) model.

Data collected from the system allows remote monitoring of equipment, serving the development of diagnostic models, smart maintenance and towards the development of digital twins of the national railway network. This is considered an important platform to help improve the efficiency of infrastructure management and the capacity to exploit and operate the railway system.

Mastering train control technology marks an important step forward in the process of increasing the localization rate, creating a premise for Vietnam to proactively design, manufacture, operate, maintain, repair and replace train control automation systems in the future.

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