Thales Rail Signalling Solutions was a division of

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

that supplies

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

-based

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

solutions for

railways Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to roa ...

. Its operations are controlled from several locations: *its head office in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France *its railway business divisional centers in

Ditzingen Ditzingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Ditzenge'') is a town in the Ludwigsburg (district), district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 10 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 12 km southwest of Ludwigs ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany;

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria; and

Hengelo Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...

, the Netherlands *its mass transit business divisional centre in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada

History

The original moving block signaling system for

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT) or heavy rail, commonly referred to as metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport that is generally built in urban areas. A grade separation, grade separated rapid transit line below ground su ...

was introduced by

Urban Transportation Development Corporation The Urban Transportation Development Corporation Ltd. (UTDC) is a former State-owned enterprise, Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It was established in the 1970s as a way to enter what was then expected to be a bu ...

(an Ontario

Crown corporation Crown corporation () is the term used in Canada for organizations that are structured like private companies, but are directly and wholly owned by the government. Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country, and have a sign ...

) for its

Intermediate Capacity Transit System Innovia Metro is an automated rapid transit system manufactured by Alstom. Innovia Metro systems run on conventional metal rails and pull power from a third rail but are powered by a linear induction motor that provides traction by using magnet ...

(ICTS). In 1985, the ICTS technology was successfully implemented on three new railway lines in North America, all of which continue to use the system today: * SkyTrain (

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, British Columbia) - original installation now part of the Expo Line and later used on new lines and extensions *

Scarborough RT Line 3 Scarborough, originally known as Scarborough RT (the SRT), was a medium-capacity rapid transit line that was part of the Toronto subway system of the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line ran entirely within ...

(Toronto, Ontario), part of the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rai ...

network *

Detroit People Mover The Detroit People Mover (DPM) is a Elevated railway, elevated People mover, automated people mover system in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States. The system operates in a one-way loop on a single track encircling downtown Detroit, using ...

(

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, Michigan), opened in 1987 UTDC's

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, Railroad car#Freight cars, freight and Passenger railroad car, passenger cars (or coaches) ...

manufacturing operations were later absorbed by

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, with headquarters in Toronto and Berlin. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. ...

, who divested the signalling technology to

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

. In April 2006,

announced it would be acquiring Alcatel Rail Signalling Solutions in a deal which also raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. In August 2021 Thales announced that the ground transportation business was to be sold to

Hitachi Rail Hitachi, Ltd. Railway Systems Business Unit, Trade name, trading as Hitachi Rail, is the rolling stock and railway signalling manufacturing division of Hitachi outside Japan. History Hitachi's rail division before global expansion After the ...

for €1,660 million. The process has been completed on May 31, 2024.

Products

Various

railway signalling Railway signalling (), or railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight ...

systems: *

SelTrac SelTrac is a digital railway signalling technology used to automatically control the movements of rail vehicles. It was the first fully automatic moving-block signalling system to be commercially implemented. SelTrac was originally developed ...

(

communications-based train control Communications-based train control (CBTC) is a railway signaling system that uses telecommunications between the train and track equipment for traffic management and infrastructure control. CBTC allows a train's position to be known more accura ...

for mass transit) *AlTrac *ComTrac *NetTrac *FieldTrac *RBC (Radio Block Controller) *OBU (OnBoard Unit) *

ETCS The European Train Control System (ETCS) is a train protection system designed to replace the many incompatible systems used by European railways, and railways outside of Europe. ETCS is the signalling and control component of the European ...

LZB Linienzugbeeinflussung (or LZB) is a cab signalling and train protection system used on selected Deutsche Bundesbahn, German and Austrian Federal Railways, Austrian railway lines as well as on the AVE and some commuter rail lines in Rail transpo ...

Besides its signalling solutions, Thales additionally develops electronic

interlocking systems In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inter ...

, axle counters that can replace track circuits, various types of

point machine A point machine (also known as a point motor, switch machine or switch motor) is a device for operating railway turnouts especially at a distance. Overview In the earliest times, points were operated manually by levers. Gradually, these were ce ...

s, and railway worker protection systems.

References

{{Authority control Thales Group divisions and subsidiaries Train protection systems Railway signalling manufacturers fr:Thales Rail Signalling Solutions