I. Străinescu’s research while affiliated with ICPE SA and other places

The development of on-board electronics of vehicles is related to the evolution of microcontrollers and microprocessor, both in hardware and software issues. Traction equipment has been based on such electronic controllers for decades, but most of the systems are paralleled and have fewer interconnections. The specialists of ICPE SAERP have accomplished the interconnection task on the authors latest products designed to be operated on trolley buses, trams, light metros or electrical multiple unit (EMU). This working paper presents the interconnection of traction equipment mounted on the Irisbus body and the same communication protocol applied for trams, thus allowing the vehicle to have full on-line diagnosis within the intelligent and advanced transport systems.

The development of the great cities in Romania, especially of the capital, Bucharest, and the exaggerated increase of the number of cars, mostly used cars from Western Europe, have contributed to the pollution of these cities and resulted in a horrific urban traffic, particularly during the morning and evening rush hours. This paper will examine the decision factors and the planning concerns to provide better conditions for urban transport in Bucharest and in the other great cities in Romania, especially with regard to urban electrical vehicles. Although the fleet of urban transport vehicles is based on electrical vehicles, because of the traffic jam during rush hours, satisfaction of passengers is low, with the exception of the light-rail and metro passengers. This makes more people use their personal car when they go to work or shopping (even single occupancy), resulting in terrible traffic. This was the reason light-rail transportation was developed in Bucharest and in major cities of Romania. In order to encourage the usage of the urban transportation means, especially electrical ones, we have proposed some measures to improve the comfort provided by the urban public transport vehicles. The company ICPE SAERP Bucharest, specialized in the production of electrical traction drives and auxiliary converters, is developing and continuously improving the equipment and services concerning auxiliary services equipment, converters for air conditioning systems, access to traffic information, transport quality, unified fares for surface transportation (trams, trolleybuses and buses) and underground transportation, easy access vehicles, safety, security and cleanliness. Keywords: modern transit, trams, trolleybuses, light metro, subway lines, capacity, travel time, light rail.

The development of the large cities in Romania, especially of the capital, Bucharest, and the exaggerated increase of the number of cars, mostly used cars from Western Europe with a long mileage, has contributed to the pollution of these cities and resulted in a horrific urban traffic, particularly during the morning and the evening rush hours. To provide this kind of transportation in Bucharest and the surrounding areas, RATB uses 300 km of tram lines with a park of 500 tram wagons, 18 trolley lines with a 485 km network and a park of 300 trolleys, the bus transport system with a 2900 km network and a park of 1300 buses, 3 Light Rail (LR) lines and 4 subway lines.. This paper will examine the decision factors and the planning concerns to provide better conditions for urban transport in Bucharest and in the other large cities in Romania, especially with urban electrical vehicles. Although the fleet of urban transport vehicles is based on electrical vehicles, because of the traffic jams during the rush hour, the satisfaction of the passengers is low (except for the light-rail and metro passengers). A lot of car owners are using car transport (even single occupancy) to the work place and shopping areas, resulting in terrible traffic. This is the reason why the light-rail transportation was developed in Bucharest and in major cities in Romania, as presented before. In order to encourage the use of the urban transportation means (especially the electrical ones), we have proposed some measures to improve the comfort provided by urban public transport vehicles. The company ICPE SAERP Bucharest, that specializes in the production of electrical traction drives and auxiliary converters, is developing and continuously improving the equipment

In the European Recommendation COM (2007) 551 final, we find that, in the European Union, over 60% of the population lives in urban areas. Urban areas now constitute the living environment of the majority of the population and increased traffic in town and city centers has resulted in chronic congestion. Every year nearly 100 billion Euros, or 1% of the EU’s GDP, are lost to the European economy as a result of this phenomenon. The analysis of the means of transport presented here will show which electrical vehicle is the solution for non-polluting transport according to each specific need. ICPE SAERP, together with RAT Bucharest, has modernized classic tramcars, equipping them with three-phase inverters and asynchronous motors and a partially lowered floor. By 2011, 18 tramcars will be modernized. ICPE SAERP, together with ASTRA BUS Arad, produce and deliver in Bucharest new trolleybuses with lowered floors, equipped with three-phase inverters, with asynchronous motors and with converters for the auxiliary services and for the air conditioning system. Also the trolleybus has a protection device against high voltage present on the body of the vehicle, which is controlled by means of a DSP processor in the master controller. The methodology used in our research is presented in this paper and the results that led us to the conclusions that the type of public transportation proposed is cleaner, more reliable, more efficient and more comfortable than others. Keywords: light metro – LM, metro, tram, trolleybus, urban electric transport.

The development of the great cities in Romania, especially of the capital, Bucharest, and the dramatic rise in the number of cars, most of them purchased from Western Europe, has, over a long period of usage contributed to the pollution of these cities and resulted in horrific urban traffic, particularly during the morning and evening rush hours. To provide alternative transportation in Bucharest and the surrounding areas, RATB uses 300 km of tram lines with a park of 500 tram wagons, 18 trolley lines with a 485 km network and a park of 300 trolleys, the bus transport system with a 2900 km network and a park of 1300 buses, 3 Light Rail – LR lines and 4 subway lines. During rush hours, the tram and trolley lines are most of the time obstructed by cars, so the average transport speed is 6–9 km/h for trolleys and 8–10 km/h for trams. The traffic travel time for cars is around 220,000 vehicles/hour, 18,000 vehicles/hour for cabs and 854,000 passengers/hour for urban transportation with electrical vehicles and buses. The impact on the environment can be measured in noise levels which for 2007 were estimated at 62.8 dB and polluting car emission level: 2 t NOX, 10 t CO, 1.2 t unburned hydrocarbon / particles, 357 t SO2, 1113 t CO2. This paper will examine the decision factors and the planning concerns to provide a more efficient urban transport in Bucharest and other great cities in Romania, especially with electrical vehicles. To this end the paper proposes a methodology to optimize the selection mode and the track design for Light Rail – LR, using existing tram lines with the necessary additions, the construction of new subway lines for the busy areas and the continuous development of the tram and trolley urban transportation. Keywords: transit modes, mode selection, transit decision, capacity, travel time, light rail – LR, Metro, trams.

The company ICPE SAERP S.A. is the main producer of electric drives for urban traction and for railway vehicles in Romania. The products of our company are subject to the last 48 years of permanent evolution, based on the semiconductor’s development and of the microprocessors control techniques. The improvement of the passenger’s comfort and the downsizing of the exploitation costs is a must for public transportation companies, relating to trolleybuses and trams. Both can be achieved by using modern electric drives (DC choppers or three-phase inverters), which can reduce power consumption and increase control of the vehicle. The main products for electric traction are: drives for traction motors of the vehicles (DC choppers for DC series motors and three-phase inverters for asynchronous and for synchronous motors) and converters for auxiliary services of the vehicles with two development directions, battery chargers (DC converters) for drive supply (24Vdc or 110Vdc) and threephase inverters for auxiliary asynchronous motors (steering, compressor). ICPE SAERP SA has delivered 310 pcs. traction equipment with DC chopper with GTO thyristors or IGBT transistors that equip the trolleybuses from Astrabus srl Arad for the final customers RAT Bucharest, Transurb Galaţi and Ratuc Cluj – Napoca. This paper presents driving equipment with three-phase inverters for asynchronous motors for trolleys and trams that ICPE SAERP has delivered in the past three years. The paper also presents the equipment’s performances, the analysed principle for electrical power diagrams. Keywords: three-phase inverter, asynchronous traction motor, electrical vehicle.

Assuring proper safety measures for all the passengers using the trolley, especially in the case of dangerous voltages, should be one of the most important issues to be taken into consideration. The method and the device that detects dangerous voltages that may appear between the body of the trolley and the road surface must be used on all types of trolleys that are supplied from a non-insulated network. The trolleys must be equipped with conducting bands or metallic cables – usually mounted close to the access doors – which collect the road potential. The device is supposed to monitor the potential difference between the body of the trolley and the road and detect two levels of dangerous voltage: the warning level, when the voltage is approximately 20V, and the disconnection level, when the voltage is over 40V, the case in which the main contactor is opened and the supply trolleys are lowered. Keywords: trolley, danger, detection, potential.

The company ICPE SAERP S.A. is the main producer of the electric drives for urban traction and for railway vehicles in Romania. The products of our company are subject to the last 57 years of permanent evolution, based on the development of the semiconductor and of the microprocessor control techniques. The improvement of the passenger’s comfort and the downsizing of the exploitation costs are a must for public transportation companies, relating to trolleybuses and trams. Both can be achieved by using modern electric drives (dc-choppers or 3-phase inverters), which can reduce the power consumption and can increase the control of the vehicle. The main products for electric traction are the drives for traction motors of the vehicles (as DC-choppers for DC series motors and 3-phase inverters for asynchronous or synchronous motors) and converters for auxiliary services of the vehicles (battery chargers and 3-phase inverters for auxiliary asynchronous motors). This paper represents a review of those applications and their benefits. Keywords: electric drive, inverter, chopper, trolley, tram, converter, charger, research, development. 1 Driving equipment for the traction motors 1.1 Choppers for direct current motors This chapter presents such a system that is mounted or can be mounted on the tramcar and on the trolleybus. ICPE SAERP S.A. has delivered 359 traction

The Public Transport Company from Bucharest, RATB, and the company ICPE SAERP are working side by side to ensure public transport in Bucharest by an electrical means of transportation. This is realized by improving the electrical vehicles (trams and trolleys) and by synchronization of the operation of RATB and METROREX. To ensure this kind of transportation in Bucharest and its surroundings, RATB uses a network of over 300 km of tramcar lines with a park of almost 500 tramcars, 18 trolley bus lines with a park of 300 trolley buses and an autobus park of 1300. The transportation lines in Bucharest depend on the 3 subway lines so that the transportation is optimum. The trolley bus park ensures civilized transportation with a negligible pollution level. In this case the exploitation costs are higher than for autobus transportation, but lower than for tramcar wagon transportation, and this is why it is easier to implement in Bucharest. Keywords: urban transport management, trolleybus, tram. 1 Introduction In the European Recommendation COM (2007) 551 final [1, page 3], we find the following: • In the European Union, over 60% of the population lives in urban areas. Just less than 85% of the EU’s gross domestic product – GDP – is

In this paper we present the speed control system developed at ICPE SAERP SA Bucharest for traction equipment consisting of more than one drive, such as the two-motored tramcar, the double-unit metro or the tractor coach for railway use. The system contains hierarchical processor controllers for speed and torque. The main connections between processor units are serial connections, and the communication protocol has special safety tasks. The speed regulators are based on velocity measurements of the axles and are located at main controllers in order to operate at low frequency. Each of the motor units is driven with individual power converters. Inside the power converter is located a slave processor which performs the current regulation based on the local transducers. The diagnosis tasks are both global with master controller and local by every slave controller, so the central diagnosis task can operate the data with high resolution. The system allows the addition of several motored units and can be driven from a selectable cabin. Further converter and motor evolution will easily fit inside the system. Keywords: speed control, tram, metro, converter, diagnosis. 1 Introduction Due to operating characteristics and requirements, big urban transport vehicles fully meet basic transport requirements, such as short stations, maximum speed restriction of approximately 70–80 km/h, large traffic of passengers and the possibility of organizing a good complex system of transport. Thus, we consider that, at the present moment, electrical transport based on trams and metro trains in the urban area and by trains in the suburban area, represents the best solution. In Bucharest as well as in the other towns in our country, the transport systems have been recently reconsidered by considering the metro and the trams as basic means of urban transport. That is the reason why, at present, all efforts