The Bombela Consortium, which is building the Gautrain, will spend the R1 billion it has budgeted for IT mainly on e-ticketing, assuring train, as well as passenger safety, and keeping travellers aboard the 160km/h train informed of their progress.
Bombela spokesman Kelebogile Machaka says the R1 billion is a projection that "will include costs for train design, electronic and communication systems to be fitted at the control centre, as well as electronic systems to be fitted at the stations".
Tight security on the trains and in the project's 10 stations is to be maintained through access control and electronic surveillance, "with over 650 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and visible policing," Machaka says.
A train will generally consist of four or eight Bombardier Electrostar rail cars, each fitted with two CCTV cameras, feeding data to an on-board DVD recording system. "While images are stored locally, they may also be viewed on the intelligent display unit in the driver's cab."
An audio system will support two-way passenger emergency communication between alarm units in the passenger areas and the driver in the active cab.
In the event of an accident, security threat, power failure or other emergency, alarm systems will register at the Operation and Maintenance Centre (OMC) for the immediate despatching of the necessary safety, repair and rescue services.
There is direct communication between the Midrand-based OMC, the police's nearby 10111 emergency contact centre and the Gauteng Provincial Disaster Management Centre, also in Midrand.
At the OMC, a Bombardier Interflo centralised traffic control system allows for the complete digital control and supervision of the tracks, as well as the trains running on them, the required power supply and the vital rail signalling system.
Aboard the 24 train sets that comprise the Gautrain's rolling stock, an automatic train protection system will monitor the trains' top speed limit of 160km per hour, "as well as every lesser speed limitation, which will be pre-set for every single metre of track", says Machaka.
"Should the driver exceed the posted speed limit at any point by more than 3km per hour, an alarm will sound in his cab. At more than 6km per hour above the posted speed limit, the train's service brakes will be automatically applied to slow the train to below the posted speed limit."
The system also has the ability to bring a train safely to a stop in the unlikely event that a driver is incapacitated.
Real-time passenger information
The trains are also fitted with a fully integrated audiovisual passenger information system that consists of external visual information in the form of a destination display using ultra-bright-yellow light-emitting diodes fitted to the front of the train.
Inside each of the system's 96 coaches - the first four of which were recently delivered to Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa - are fitted two high-resolution display units providing information on the train's destination, updates on its progress along the route and notifications as stations are approached.
In the "unlikely event of delays, train drivers and conductors will be able to broadcast announcements using the train's public address system".
Interoperable e-ticketing
Bombela last year awarded the Thales Group and local partner Stimela Infrastructure Management Services a R100 million contract to provide a "contactless e-ticketing solution" for the rapid rail system.
The contract, now operative, requires Thales to design and deploy a contactless e-ticketing system at all 10 Gautrain stations, including OR Tambo International Airport.
Thales Transportation Systems MD Jean-Louis Oli'e at the time called the solution it had proposed a "major step forward in the development of an interoperable e-ticketing system in SA".
"The proposed solution will also be interoperable so that commuters can use the same contactless smart card for different services: the Gautrain, Gautrain station car parks and the Gautrain bus feeder and distributor system," known as Rea Vaya, in Johannesburg, Oli'e added.
The Thales ticketing and access control system company will include a three-lane entry-exit gate that will allow for flows of up to 60 passengers per minute at peak times.
On the power-supply side, Machaka says the network's main power substation is located within the Midrand depot that is visible to motorists passing through the Buccleuch interchange and is fed from "two totally independent Eskom 88kV feeders".
Each Eskom feeder, in turn, supplies two separate Gautrain transformers. She says any of the four Gautrain transformers has sufficient capacity to power the entire train propulsion system, achieving a high level of redundancy and assurance of electrical power supply.
The coaches also generate some of their own power through an automatic applied regenerative braking system.
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