INGENIEUR
Overview and Classification of Railway Systems
A modern railway system is invariably an electrical
drive system. It consists of three essential
components.
• First component: Civil engineering rail - road
infrastructure with the running-rails track work,
the electrical signalling and control equipment,
the stations and the high-voltage catenary or
third rail (power rail) system with a power/
energy supply.
• Second component: The rolling stock
comprising electrical locomotives and
passenger cars.
Infrastructure and rolling stock represent the
“hardware” of the railway system.
• Third component: A system of operating
rules and procedures for a safe and efficient
operation.
These rules and procedures may be regarded
as the “software” of a railway system.
Although, it is not seen, this third component of
the railway system is of the same importance
as infrastructure and rolling stock.
To understand how railway operations are
controlled requires a basic understanding of how
the procedures for moving railway vehicles are
connected with the design of the track layout and
the signalling system.
Railway systems may be classified as shown
in Figure 1.
Standard railways form the nationwide railway
system, the KTMB rail network, including the
electrified North-South double track project.
Due to a high degree of standardization, most
railway vehicles can operate on the entire national
rail network. There may also be lines built for a
specific kind of traffic (Example: High speed lines)
where other kinds of traffic are excluded, an
example of this is the KL Sentral- KLIA Express
Rail Link (ERL). Most standard railways offer
transportation services to customers on the public
transportation market. Most industrial railways
(example: the cement industry) are also connected
to the public network. These railways are used
to provide access for industrial facilities to the
public network, but also for internal rail traffic
within an industrial and/ or port area. Industrial
railways not connected to the public network can
mainly be found in the mining industry. Some
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Figure 1: Classification of Railway Systems
mining companies deliver their mining products
(mainly coal and ores) with their own trains on
their own tracks to power plants, ports and other
destinations without using the public network.
Light Rail Systems are passenger railways
used for city transits or regional passenger traffic.
Vehicle and track designs usually are much lighter
than those for standard railways. Typical classes of
light trail systems are rapid mass transit railways,
such as subways and similar metro railways, and
streetcar systems. The operating principle of a
streetcar system differs from standard railways
much more than the principles of rapid mass
transit railways do. A nationwide standardization
of light rail systems is not required since the
different networks are separated from each other.
In most countries, standard railways and light rail
systems are regulated by different Governmental
bodies.
Special rail systems are a third general
category to cover all railways that neither meet
the characteristics of standard railways nor the
characteristic of light rail system.
From the preceding, it can be appreciated that
railway engineering is underpinned by two basic
engineering disciplines namely civil/structure
engineering and electrical engineering. However,
as highlighted earlier, Malaysia sorely lacks local
expertise in electrical train systems engineering
with wide skill gaps covering train traction power,
train control and signalling and operational