Signalling safety

The use of railway signalling and safety devices enables the quick, efficient and above all safe management of rail traffic. These are technical means used to protect critical points (switch-point areas and stations, open lines between stations, single-level crossings of railway lines with roads at the same level and the like). In addition, they enable the central and thus optimal management of railway traffic in large regions. The signalling and safety devices relieve traffic management staff from routine procedures, but what is the most important is that technical means and logic operations considerably reduce the impact of the "human factor", which is otherwise the most common reason for threats to safety.

In simple terms, signalling and safety devices are light or graphic signals along the line that are connected to the central device by switch-points and other devices along the route a train travels. The signals are used for communication between the train engine driver and the staff managing the railway traffic. They are used to present the signs for the permitted or prohibited passage of trains, and signs for permitted passage with a regular or reduced speed depending on the position and geometry of the line, type of route (straight line or inclination), traffic situation and so on.