History

 In the past almost every railroad used its own proprietary and independently developed analog radio system. This situation was difficult to handle in trains crossing several borderlines, since a multitude of radio sets had to be provided. The capabilities of analog radio was limited anyhow.

In 1983 the International Union of Railways (UIC) decided to use the GSM standard as a basis for future digital mobile radio standard. Within the scope of the EIRENE (European Integrated Railway Radio Enhanced NEtwork) and MORANE (MOile RAdio for Railways Networks in Europe) projects the requirements and specifications of this railroad specific GSM-R standard were developed with focus on interoperability and compatibility. These two projects were performed in close partnership with the ETSI-SMG (Special Mobile Group) resulting in the new GSM-Rail (or GSM-R) standard.

The advantages of the GSM-R standard are:

  • Interoperability of communication for European railroad traffic
  • Effectiveness through usage of ERTME (European Railway Traffic Management System)
  • Cost reduction in areas of operations and maintenance while increasing bandwith
  • Simplification of communications in comparison with the legacy analog radio 

In 1997 a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed by 32 railroad operators in 24 European countries, which was followed in 2000 by 16 operators signing an AoI (Agreement of Implementation) by the year of 2003. Deployement phase within many countries is currently in progress using equipment from various vendors.

The GSM-R specifications were converted into European standards by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization) in order to ensure compliance with all member states. The GSM-R standard is now handled by UIC, ETSI and 3GPP for regular maintenance.