USE OF ONTOLOGY FOR DATA INTEGRATION IN A DEGRADED MODE SIGNALLING SYSTEM

Abstract

Every week many thousands of delay minutes are accrued on the UK railway, a significant proportion of which can be attributed to failures of signalling sub-systems, such as track circuits. Signalling failures are both expensive for the infrastructure provider (as knock-on delays to services build up rapidly) and a source of frustration and delays for passengers, leading to increased dissatisfaction with the industry as a whole. A degraded mode signalling system, offering less functionality than the main system but via alternative channels, can help to mitigate these failures and allow railway operations to continue whilst the main signalling system is repaired. The use of ontology was a key enabler in this project, making it possible to draw together data from multiple sources and infer meaning from the data supplied. National scale signalling data was used with the ontology without impediment.