Irish Rail spends €2m on new comms system


14 Jun 2007

Irish Rail has struck a €2m deal with an Israel-based communications technology company to deploy a signalling protocol network of over 200 IP PBX systems across Irish Rail’s emergency lineside systems, covering the Dublin DART network and its Central Train Control (CTC) Centre.

The projects were delivered through Israeli firm Tadiran’s partner in Ireland Diacom Computer Telephony

The overall system concept was conceived with significant design input from the Irish Rail Signalling and Telecoms Group.

The DART line supports 30 stations connected to the CTC Centre.

Diacom installed 30 Coral IPx 500 systems, which are networked to a duplicated redundant Coral FlexiCom 5000 system.

The CTC, which is located in Connolly station in Dublin, provides services to each station to support administration telephony and passenger help points, including a passenger hotline and passenger booking offices.

The project is being undertaken as part of the Irish Government’s Transport 21 plan, which addresses the twin challenges of past investment backlogs and unprecedented growth in transport demand.

As part of a contract to support the new nationwide automated level crossing system, Tadiran will supply a redundant Coral FlexiCom 6000 system with fully duplicated fibre remote shelves to service over 1,000 emergency level crossing telephones.

“Our success with Irish Rail, as well as many other rail projects including very large contracts in India, China and Russia, are based on Tadiran’s ability to provide products that are robust and flexible. Rail networks require a telephone system that meets very precise and strict operational and safety standards,” said Zeev Aviv, vice-president of sales and marketing at Tadiran Telecom.

By John Kennedy