ERTMS Solutions
ERTMS Solutions is a Belgian developer of testing and maintenance instruments for railway signalling, headquartered in Brussels and supplying tools for ETCS commissioning and trackside asset monitoring.
The company was founded in 2008 and employs around 13 full-time equivalents according to its most recent Belgian annual accounts. Its products are designed and manufactured in-house in Brussels.
Core products and services
The ERTMSCamCorder is an onsite testing tool that records, replays and reports all trackside and onboard data exchanged during the test and commissioning phase of ETCS projects. Synchronised recording reduces post-processing time and the track occupancy needed for testing.
In ETCS Level 2, movement authorities travel between trackside and train over the GSM-R radio network (Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway), so commissioning depends directly on how far GSM-R and migration planning has progressed on each line. In 2017, the company entered a partnership with Expandium, whose drive-test tools measure GSM-R network quality alongside ERTMS Solutions’ instruments.
The LifeCheck product line automates preventive maintenance of trackside assets: the BaliseLifeCheck measures the electrical health and telegram quality of Eurobalises and of balises in legacy systems such as the French KVB (Contrôle de Vitesse par Balises), while the TrackCircuitLifeCheck covers track circuits. Both can be mounted on diagnostic or commercial trains.
The Onboard Monitoring Box passively collects messages exchanged between ERTMS onboard sub-systems, and ERTMSFormalSpecs provides formal modelling of ERTMS requirements for laboratory testing.
Market position
According to the company’s own channels, SNCF has used the BaliseLifeCheck for Eurobalise and KVB balise maintenance in France since 2015, mounted on measurement and maintenance vehicles. In 2019, Network Rail selected the ERTMSCamCorder as its integrated onsite testing tool for the Thameslink Programme in London.
Other users include Luxembourg’s CFL, which chose the BaliseLifeCheck for its national ETCS network in 2019, and Korail’s research partner NBPlus in South Korea, a customer since 2016. The instruments serve the connectivity and communications layer of signalling projects, where radio, balise and onboard data must be verified together.
Recent developments
In February 2023, Škoda Group acquired a 93.9% majority stake in The Signalling Company, the ETCS onboard joint venture that ERTMS Solutions had co-founded with freight operator Lineas. The signalling team was integrated into Škoda’s own organisation.
