BELGIUM: Infrastructure manager Infrabel expressed concern about the reliability of AC100 axle-counters supplier by Siemens in a statement issued on May 8, saying 125 incidents had caused 9 000 min of delay in the first quarter of the year. This was double the figure for the same period last year, and included significant disruption at Schaerbeek on March 12.
Siemens began rolling out the AC100 axle-counters in May 2017, and reliability issues began to emerge towards the end of the year. Infrabel said it had demanded an urgent investigation, but four months on a solution was still required.
Responding to Infrabel’s statement, Siemens told Railway Gazette that it was working on a solution in co-operation with Infrabel, the causes of the problems were known and a step-by-step plan to solve them was available. The supplier said rectifying the problems was technically complex, but it was ‘doing everything possible’ to implement a solution in as short a time as possible.
