In consideration of the future of rail transport throughout Europe, the international association UIC (International Union of Railways) has launched the project EIRENE. The main reason for such decision is the integration of railways into Trans-European network on one hand, and savings in the process of modernizing and construction of railways on the other hand.
The existing signaling system is insufficient, as well as is the other key factor of effective management, i.e. remote control. The requirements for radio system in EIRENE standard resulted in selection of GSM communication technology. Regarding the fact that some types of the provided services must be different from public GSM network, this standard was amended and modified by further features essential for rail transport and finalized to comply with GSM-R standard (Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway).

DUAL-MODE

Considering the financial requirements of the new system based on GSM-R, we must be aware of the fact that the two original systems (analog 450 MHz and new GSM-R) will operate in parallel for at least the following 10 years. We can also expect that some railways keep the original analog communication infrastructure for many years or even forever. Therefore some locomotives must be equipped with the existing analog system, while others need a new GSM-R system. The locomotives designed for operation on both railways have to be equipped with both systems. To make up for this unwanted state, the locomotives are equipped with DUAL MODE radio stations that provide interoperability between the two systems. It is taken for granted that the DUAL MODE concept must comply with some local specifics of the analog part, e.g. the option to select the language for the locomotive driver control panel (MMI), special telegram application or simplex communication in the band of 160 MHz.