Ansaldo STS Australia has been awarded contracts worth $362 million to supply an automated train management system in the country’s Pilbara region.
The first contract worth $317.5 million, which has been awarded under the Rio Tinto Iron Ore – Ansaldo STS Framework Agreement (RAFA), is for the development and delivery of an automated train management system for Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s 1,500km heavy-haul iron ore rail network in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The automated heavy-haul railway, to be completed in 2015, will be the first of its kind in the world.
The highly-specialised modular signalling solution, which is being developed and implemented by Ansaldo STS, includes the introduction of a centralised Vital Safety Server for the safe and flexible management of train movements and an on-board driving module, which enables the complete automation of the trains’ operation.
Additional features of the Ansaldo STS solution include complete reuse of wayside infrastructure and minimisation of disruption to train operations during deployment.
The other contract awarded to Ansaldo STS under RAFA, which is worth $44.7 million, involves the delivery of the next in a series of staged upgrades for capacity and efficiency enhancements to Rio Tinto Iron Ore’s long-distance heavy-haul rail network.
Under the new contract Ansaldo STS will complete upgrades to Rio Tinto’s locomotive control systems so that the network can support the introduction of Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) braking. Ansaldo STS will then complete the installation and system integration of the ECP braking on Rio Tinto’s heavy-haul rail fleet.
The introduction of ECP braking will significantly reduce delays of Rio Tinto’s iron ore trains as they travel continuously from mine to port along the 1,500km remote heavy-haul rail line.
Ansaldo STS Australia has been designing and delivering signalling and communications solutions for heavy-haul mining railways for more than 15 years.
The company employs 700 people across Australia and has offices in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Perth and Karratha.
