Railway Systems Software Assurance Services

The Taiwan High Speed Rail Project is the country's first and the largest build-operate-transfer (BOT) project. Under the BOT structure, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) was awarded a concession to plan, design, finance, construct, commission and operate the railway for a period of 35 years by the Government of Taiwan.The railway is a high speed rail link between Taipei and Kaohsiung along the western corridor of the Taiwan Island.

In January 2003,E-Consult International Limited signed an Agreement with Atkins China Limited,the appointed RAMS Consultants,to provide software assurance services to Japanese consortium Taiwan Shinkansen Corporation (TSC),the Prime contractor for the "Core System" of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Project. The scope of the Core System for the railway includes Rolling Stock and all project-wide signaling,protection,control,monitoring,information and communication systems. There are some 35 software-based subsystems ,ranging from small embedded applications in rolling stock equipment to network-wide systems such as signaling,SCADA and telecommunications.

E-consult, supported by CCT, provided a team of software assurance specialists, lead by a Software Assurance Manager, to establish the safety and quality framework for all Core System software (ranging from SIL 0 to SIL 4)and to conduct audits and assessments, for compliance with EN 50128 and IEC 61508, throughout the development lifecycle of each software system. In addition to auditing and assessment, the E-Consult team provided management and coordination of the software development teams to ensure adherence to software development standards, approval of Software Personnel appointed by the software developers, attended software audits conducted by THSRC,their independent Checking Engineers and Independent Verification and Validation Engineers and convened periodic coordination meetings with TSC software suppliers.

Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety and EMC Services

E-Consult, in partnership with CCT and Lloyd's Register Rail, have been appointed by Marubeni Corporation as RAMS Consultants for the Palm Jumeirah Monorail Project.

The RAMS approach is based on the use of proven monorail technology and detailed comparison will be made with selected "Reference Systems" to demonstrate that any differences in design, environment, application,operation or maintenance does not compromise RAM or safety.

This approach will provide a robust assurance of RAMS performance, while minimizing the cost and burden of assurance activities on the project.

Marubeni are the main construction contractors for a straddle-beam monorail system on the man-made resort island of Palm Jumeirah, part of the largest land reclamation project in history. Located in the Emirate of Dubai, the monorail will provide transportation from Gateway Station at the island's entrance to the marine resort complex of Atlantis. This automatic system will be 5.4 kilometers long and operate without a driver. Marubeni's subcontractors for the project are Hitachi Ltd, Nippon Signal Co.Ltd., Omron Corporation, a joint venture of Obayashi Corporation and Oriental Construction Co.Ltd., Tonichi Engineering Consultants Inc., and Tostems Inc. The contract for the project is worth approximately $US390 million.

Systems / Software Assurance Services

Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is developing an integrated transport network that is to include an urban rail system known as the Dubai Metro, to support the rapidly growing population and enhance the public transport infrastructure, as a catalyst for tourism.

Dubai Metro is forecast to become one of the most advanced urban rail systems in the World, employing fully automatic, driverless operation.

Safety and environmental impact considerations will be of uppermost importance to the Project.

The Main Contractor (MHI) has been awarded a contract to Kinki Sharyo for the supply of the rolling stock, comprising 99-5car trains.

Kinki Sharyo appointed E-Consult/CCT as Software Assurance Consultants and Independent Software Assessors for the Dubai Rolling stock systems. CCT have undertaken similar roles for Kinki Sharyo on rolling stock for KCRC East Rail and West Rail in Hong Kong since 1999.

Dubai Metro statistics are as follows:-

System Length - 70km ( 50km Red line, 20km Green Line), Projected Cost - $AE$14.3 Billion ( $US 4 Billion ), 57 Stations, Power Supply - Third rail, 3.5 km Tunnels, Projected Rider ship - 1.2 million per day, Minimum headway - 90 seconds, Project Opening ( Phase 1 ) - 2009.

Further details of the project can be found on the website:-

http://vgn.gov.ae/DMEGOV/dm-metro-news