This paper was published in IRSE NEWS July/August 2017.

Introduction by Rod Muttram: "At several IRSE presentations I have attended, including the 2016 IRSE Convention in Beijing, I have witnessed confusion regarding exactly what the CTCS-3 train control system used on most Chinese high-speed Lines is and how it relates to ETCS Level 2. I have often heard it said that it is “quite different and bears no relation to ETCS Level 2”. But I know from my time with Bombardier (who have supplied the majority of the ETCS on-board systems used in China to date) that the system they supplied to China was no different to an SRS 2.3.0d on-board supplied into any other market. What differs is the way that it is integrated into the overall CTCS-3 system and of course, on a dedicated high-speed implementation, not all functions are used. To try to reduce the confusion we asked Professor Ning Bin, President of Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU), and Professor Tang Tao, Director of the Key State Laboratory for Rail Traffic Control and Safety at BJTU, to produce the article below. They have now kindly done that with the assistance of another BJTU colleague and two members of staff from the China Railway Corporation. We hope it proves enlightening."

In order to meet the requirements of Chinese railway’s rapid development, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) proposed the strategic development of the Chinese Train Control System (CTCS) which should be advanced, easy to apply, sustainable and address compatibility and interoperability. In 2002, the basic architecture and application levels of CTCS were announced at the annual UIC ERTMS conference held in Beijing.

In 2004, the general technical specification of CTCS was released by MOR, in which the overall technical framework of CTCS and the system framework of every application level from CTCS-0 to CTCS-4 were stated. In December 2009, the Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway line with the CTCS-3 train control system came into operation with a maximum operational train speed of 350 km/h. By the end of 2016, more than 20 000 km of high-speed railway lines were in operation with the CTCS-2 and CTCS-3 train control systems including 950 trains equipped with CTCS-2 on-board equipment and 1305 trains equipped with CTCS-3 on-board equipment.