EBICab is a trademark registered by Alstom (former Bombardier) for the equipment on board a train used as a part of an Automatic Train Control system. Three different families exist, which are technically unrelated.
EBICab 500 is Bombardier's implementation of the German PZB, the train protection system widely used in Germany, Austria and other countries, allowing operation up to 160 km/h.
EBICab 600 is Bombardier's implementation of the German PZB and LZB as a combined STM. The LZB is used on high-speed tracks in Germany, up to 300 km/h.
EBICab 700 was originally derived from Ericsson's SLR system in Sweden. Most trains in Sweden and Norway use a similar on-board system, Ansaldo L10000 (more known as ATC-2) from Bombardier's competitor Ansaldo STS (now Hitachi Rail STS).[1] ATC-2 was also developed in Sweden.[2]
These on-board systems use pairs of balises mounted on the sleepers. The pairs of balises distinguish signals in one direction from the other direction with semicontinuous speed supervision, using a wayside to train punctual transmission using wayside transponders.[3]
EBICab comes in two versions, EBICab 700 in Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Bulgaria and EBICab 900 installed in the spanish Mediterranean Corridor (vmax= 220 km/h), and in Finland (Finnish: Junakulunvalvonta) under the name ATP-VR/RHK. In Portugal it is known as Convel (the contraction of Controlo de Velocidade, meaning Speed Control).
The EBICab 900 system uses wayside balises with signal encoders or series communications with electronic lookup table, and on-board equipment on the train. The transmission of data occurs between the passive wayside balises (between 2 and 4 per signal) and the antenna installed under the train, which powers the balises when it passes over the balises. The coupling between the balise and the on-board antenna is inductive.
In comparison with ASFA, a system which transmits only a maximum amount of data per frequency, EBICAB uses electronic lookup table, the amount of data transmitted is much larger.
Adif/Renfe, in Spain, sometimes use the term ATP to refer to EBICAB 900, which is the first system on its network to provide Automatic Train Protection. The Manila MRT Line 3 in the Philippines also uses the ATP term to refer to EBICAB 900.[4]
The most important difference with EBICab 900, is that EBICab 700 can only transmit packets with 12 useful bits for a total of 32bits and allows up to 5 transponders per signal.
The EBICab 2000 is Bombardier's implementation of a ETCS, operated in several European countries (Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Poland). It can read Eurobalises and can communicate by Euroradio with a RBC.
This article incorporates information from a Ferropedia article, published in Castilian under a Creative Commons Compartir-Igual 3.0 license.