As another step towards EU integration, the Lithuanian railway holding LTG Group will replace its current Russian KLUB-U locomotive safety system. The new one will be developed by SRPA Impulse, a Ukrainian company which already had similar projects in Bulgaria and Estonia.
In total, 163 locomotives will have their system replaced, including 111 for rail freight services. “Our goal is to have the equipment fully compatible with national security interests as soon as possible and with a guaranteed supply of spare parts from Lithuania-friendly countries,” said Gediminas Šečkus, Chief Resilience Officer at LTG Group.
The project will be carried out in stages, with LTG Group investing 10.1 million euros. This initiative is part of the Lithuanian FREE Rail Programme, launched one year ago. Through this plan, Lithuania wishes to achieve full integration with EU railways by 2030. The Programme is not restricted only to Lithuania but to all the Baltic countries and Ukraine. For example, LTG Cargo, the group’s rail freight arm, is the first such company in the Baltic States to choose the CIM waybill, used in countries equipped with the standard rail gauge.
SRPA Impulse’s locomotive safety system
The system will enable the determination of the speed and coordinates of a locomotive based on information from satellite-based information. It will also provide information for the drivers, monitor their vigilance and prevent unauthorised movement of a locomotive. Moreover, it can assure braking when actual speed exceeds permitted speed.
By using KLUB-U, all this information was stored on Russian servers, which might no longer be in Lithuania’s best interests. However, LTG said that “the KLUB-U system server itself was disconnected in 2017 and has no connections with LTG’s essential information systems and critical information infrastructure, while the radio stations used in the rolling stock to receive commands and transmit data via the GSM-R radio channel have been dismantled”.
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