Development of a Train Approach Alarm System with GPS-Linked Mobile Phones

摘要

When workers are on a railway track for the purpose of maintenance work, surveys or other reasons, the West Japan Railway Company (JR West) stations a lookout to watch for approaching trains and to notify the workers to evacuate the track as necessary to ensure safety. However, if the lookout misreads the train operation diagram or makes other human errors, in the worst-case scenario the workers on the track are exposed to the risk of being hit by an oncoming train. To prevent such dangerous situations, JR West has developed and implemented a GPS-linked train approach alarm system and put it in practice. Under this system, each train lookout carries two mobile phones that automatically measure their position through the Global Positioning System (GPS). The phones trigger a train approach alarm attached to them if a train is detected on the track circuit specified in advance for each work site.