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RET Rotterdam

RET N.V. Integral company Age: 135 yearsApprox: 3000 employeesIntegral Public Transport network Public transport services and infrastructure maintenance

l The overall management of RET is the responsibility of chief executive officer Pedro Peters. The organisation consists of three main divisions – Transport, Finance, and Technique. RET transports more than 600,000 passengers per day: by bus, tram, metro and one Fast Ferry over water. RET is dedicated to the city and its inhabitants, and in this way hopes to make some contribution to both the ease of getting around and the quality of life within the energetic city of Rotterdam and its dynamic surroundings. In line with the company motto ‘the passenger is both our point of departure and our destination,’ RET’s goal is for ever more satisfied passengers. This is achieved through: l High frequency services l Reliable transportation l Well-designed connections l Quality and modern materials l Friendly and proud staff l Safe travel This article focuses on some of the projects, which strongly contribute to the safety and comfort and reliable rolling stock for our passengers, which are categorised: l Projects rolled out l Projects in execution l Project plans.

RandstadRail (RaRa) An interurban rail connection between The Hague and Rotterdam.

l RandstadRail (RaRa) is a renewed

60 kilometre light rail connection between

The Hague and Rotterdam’s city centre, which

extends the existing metro network known

as the Erasmus or ‘E’ metro line towards the

south side of Rotterdam.

Six newly designed and constructed metro

stations in the Rotterdam region together

with upgraded existing stations, and a 2.4

kilometre bi-directional rail tunnel, form the

renewed light rail connection.

This 2.4 kilometre tunnel was the first

bored tunnel in the Netherlands within an

urban area, and was constructed using a

70 metre long tunnel boring machine. This

tunnel has a second notable claim as the

‘Blijdorp’ station, built at a depth of

20 metres, is the deepest station within the

Netherlands. The E metro line runs through the

new colourful Rotterdam Central Station (RCS),

where international travel transfers are made,

and the metro meets up with regular heavy rail

and the HSL– high-speed track.

RaRa with its new rolling stock not

only connects two cities but also all the

intermediate towns with a densely frequent

(every ten minutes), fast, comfortable and

reliable service. All RaRa station platforms and

vehicles are easily accessible to wheelchair

users.

RET was involved by providing the expertise in

various fields of engineering.

The total project costs are: €630 million

The period of execution: 2003 –2011

RET Rotterdam -Improving journeys

Two traction projects by Cegelec l Cegelec is a specialist in the area of

rail transportation infrastructure, from the

installation of traction power supply and

operating systems to the creation of turnkey

integrated systems. It participates in the

development of railway and urban transport

infrastructures in Europe, and throughout the

world, in close collaboration with its customers

and partners such as RET in the Netherlands.

In co-operation with the RET project team,

Cegelec realised the systems and installations

for the traction power supply for the

Randstadrail and Erasmus line.

The rectifier stations cover the electrical power

distribution for the 60 kilometre track of the

light rail RandstadRail between Den-Haag and

Rotterdam.

Cegelec is involved in the following projects:

l Randstadrail traction power supply systems

and installations

l Restructuring traction power distribution for

the new Grand Central Station in Rotterdam

l Fully integrated SCADA traction monitoring

and traction safety systems

l Restructuring Erasmus line and

Statenwegtunnel traction power supply

C2000 Special Coverage Location for safety

government communication

l Rail signalling installations central station

for Siemens.

The total project costs are: over €30 million

The period of execution: autumn 2006 –

autumn 2011

CegelecAs a sub contractor of the Project Organisation RandstadRail, Cegelec succeeded in providing services in engineering, procurement, erection and commissioning of 14 rectifier stations. The rectifier stations cover the electrical power distribution for the 60 km track of the light rail RandstadRail between Den-Haag and Rotterdam. RET took the leading role for the contract supervision. Cegelec was further involved with restructuring traction power distribution for the new grand Central Station in Rotterdam; a fully integrated SCADA traction monitoring and traction safety systems; and proven reliability on the

new Rotterdam transportation network. The total project

costs are €14 million and the period of execution of the project was Autumn 2006 – Autumn 2007.

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RET Rotterdam

RaRa: Rail track safety project by Siemensl The RET aims to connect the RandstadRail

infrastructure between The Hague and

Rotterdam’s local rail network in order to expand

its operational light rail service. This project in

fact entails two elements simultaneously: The

‘Statenwegtunnel’, a tunnel section and the

conversion of the Central Station of Rotterdam

(RCS).

This will finalise the connection and provide

passengers with a safe and swift alternative for

the automotive connection between the two cities.

Statenwegtunnel:l Project costs: €5.2 million

l Availability: according to RandstadRail lot 1

l Performance: headway 240 seconds

l Type of rail track safety system: Sicas S7 ZUBTM 222

RCS conversion:l Project costs: €4.5 million

l Project planning: 2008 - August 2011

l Performance: within 360 second to allow three

metro vehicles to turn and simultaneously let a

RandstadRail vehicle pass by

l Type of rail track safety system:

DrsÜ (relay technology)

Activities:l Project Management;

l Rail track security engineering (track

equipment, interlocking and centralised traffic

control) and interface

l Fibre optic network engineering

l Installation and assembly of track equipment

including interface and fibre optic networkl Testing and commissioning

l Providing training and user documentation.

Metro stock: 22 type RSG3l RET operates the Rotterdam - The Hague

two-way inter-urban light rail track, locally

referred to as RandstadRail, with Bombardier

FLEXITY Swift vehicles. The three-piece vehicles

are 42 metres long each, carrying in total

270 passengers, and furnished with red plush

luxury seat upholstery. The vehicles have roof-

mounted air conditioning and a specialised air

suspension enabling them to whizz comfortably

to their destinations. They are also equipped

with cameras for improved public safety and

are designed to meet the highest European

standards for impact resistance and fire safety.

Project costs: ca. €105 million

Constructed: 2007 - 2009

Metro stock: 42 type SG3

By replacing the 69 piece light rail metro with

42 vehicles of the longer RSG3 type, also from

Bombardier, on the old subway lines, RET can

offer a significantly higher passenger comfort

level and overall quality of urban travelling.

Project costs: ca. €175 million

Constructed: 2007 – 2012

Highlights: except the colour of the vehicles the

RSG3 are identical.

Tram stock – Citadis: The RET in 2006 decided to buy and deploy 53

new trams of Alstom type Citadis-I. At the same

time it was then decided that Citadis-II would be

the successor to Citadis-I.

Project costs: ca. €130 million

Planned construction: 2007 – 2012

Highlights of the Citadis-II:

l Leather seat upholstery

l The tram was reduced in length by 20cm to

meet the requirements of the inner city

l Topcooling

l Roof-mounted air conditioning

l RET is currently executing the complete

renovation of its metro signalling system on

the Erasmus and the Caland lines (55km of

double track with 42 interlocking installations).

In a rigorous tender process with particular

focus on LCC aspects such as maintenance

costs and performance improvements, on

the migration strategy and on the overall

availability of the system, RET has selected

GE Transportation as its contract partner for

the execution of this project. This includes the

replacement of all interlockings, both in the

stations and the depots, all track circuits and

the entire ATP system, the supply of a back-

up office system for the control centre and

all cabling between the interlockings and the

wayside elements.

The old, mostly relay-based interlockings,

will be replaced by GE’s VHLC interlockings in

a redundant configuration. GE uses its AFTC

train detection and has developed a new ATP

transmitter board, based on the Siemens

LZB801 protocol, to be compatible with the

onboard ATP of the RET trains. A redundant

fibre optic network connects the different

locations with RET’s control centre. A protocol

convertor was developed to communicate with

RET’s VKL back office system.

The first three installations are scheduled to

go into service at the end of this year.

l The total project costs are: €93 million

l The period of execution: autumn 2008 –

autumn 2015

Renovation project of metro signalling system on older lines by GE Transportation

Rolling stock: New metro and tram vehicles

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Beverwaard TramStore and Park & Ride (P&R) l With the introduction of the new Citadis

trams, and the increasing demand for local

transport, the RET requires more space and

modern maintenance equipment for its fleet

of 85 trams and offices. The newly developed

Beverwaard tram depot is built on a sustainable

basis as part of the TramStore21 project in

a P&R concept enabling passengers to park

their car and directly access the trams. On

the 19,000 square metre site RET built a

6000 square metre maintenance hall and a

tram stabling area of 13,000 square metres.

The company carefully utilised this space to

maximum benefit with 500 P&R spaces on the

roof, and tram stabling below.

The location was chosen with great care:

l Low density residential area

l Close to an existing tramline

l Close to a main highway

l Geothermal energy-piled foundation,

512 piles of 20m length each

The goal of sustainability:

l Improving quality of environment

l Improving sustainability in building

construction

l Managing natural resources

l Low-cost use of energy

The total project costs are: €35-50 million

The period of execution: 2009-2011

RET: dREIS project l In the metropolitan region of Rotterdam,

a total of 821 functional, pole-mounted real-

time-based travel information displays have

been installed. This ambitious project known

as ‘dReis’ was commissioned by RET to be

carried out by SPIE Netherlands BV. SPIE won

the tender for the project based on its specific

design and technology, as the original column

design was tailored to the style of the Erasmus

Bridge.

A change in RET deployment policy led to the

introduction of a new, more compact design at

an early stage of the project. This new design

has since been deployed all across the City

Region.

The display panel not only informs passengers

of real-time arrivals, it also supplies additional

information like delay times or detour

information given by the central traffic control

centre (CVL).

Also available is a service and maintenance

tool, which minimizes the disruption of

the operational information service for the

passenger.

The total project costs are: €13 million

The period of execution: Mid 2009 – 2011

Tunnel safety

l RET will soon complete a programme to

upgrade the safety level for the four stations on

the Erasmus line metro, following four years of

research, including Quantified Risk Analysis. Fire

safety proposals for new and existing stations and

tunnels in the Netherlands need to pass with a

positive advice from the Dutch Safety Commission.

With local stakeholders (re. fire brigade) and the

supplier for the ventilation installations, RET was

able to reach the Dutch standards for tenable

evacuation routes. In total, 1800 passengers

(including the metro with 900 passengers capacity)

can be evacuated in around five minutes from

two platforms to a safe area. There is also the

option to improve the evacuation route with an

emergency bridge, across the space between the

two platforms.

Highlights: l Verification of the CFD results (Computer Fluid

Dynamics) on the growth of a fire in a metro vehicle

through a real fire test in a metro station

l Evacuation modelling with the guiding

behavioural measures

l Powerful ventilators with pull and push air action

l Roll down smoke screens across platforms/metro

l Thermal detection in station along the side of

pull/push ventilators

The total project costs are: €25 million

Timetable: start research: 2007 / building

execution: 2009-2011

Article by:Klaas Smit, manager of engineering office, & Albert van der Zalm, Tunnel safety advisor

Translation:Eric Stenstra (RET)

RETTel: (010) 447 69 11Email: KSMIT@ret.nlWeb: www.ret.nl

Hoekse Lijn light rail l This project involves the upgrading and improvement of the 26 kilometre long railway line of ProRail (the Dutch railway infrastructure

administrator) to a high quality light rail connection between the centre of Rotterdam and the town Hoek van Holland in the coastal area.

The existing stations will be converted to metro stations suited for light rail and two additional new stations will also be built. All stations are of the

same design and quality level as the other remaining 58 metro RET stations.

The light rail metro concept – in comparison to heavy rail – will offer a cheaper, faster means of transport and will attract more passengers by

halting at intermediate towns and urban districts. The new line extends and hooks up to the existing subway system around Rotterdam. The map

shows the projected line along the suburbs of Rotterdam to the coastal area.

The result will be a high-end market transportation product; fast, high-frequency, comfortable vehicles, real-time travel information, safe and

convenient stations.

Planning forecast: 2013 - 2015 (after government decision realisation is possible within four years)

Contract: ProRail, RET, Rotterdam Metropolitan Region, the Dutch Government.