A new central control room is being created to unify all the various applications and interfaces used to control the Lyon Metro network. VINCI Energies business unit Enfrasys is playing a central role in this ambitious project for the organising authority, SYTRAL Mobilités.
With its 4 lines, 34 km of tracks and 42 stations, the Lyon Metro is France’s second-largest after the Paris Metro. Since entering service in 1978, its operational functions (train circulation control, passenger safety, equipment monitoring) have been managed from a central control room (CCR) located beneath La Part Dieu district. This long room contains a line of computer stations and a huge wall-mounted screen.
In 35 years, this nerve centre has undergone numerous phases of modernisation, including to incorporate the fully automated Line D, and more recently, to accommodate the extension and automation of Line B.
But the current project promises a far more radical transformation of the Lyon control room. Its tools and computer systems have come to proliferate and overlap over the years, making the operators’ job increasingly complex.
Modernisation of the CCR meets the imperative requirements of quality and operational safety.
Since most of these applications were developed to manage a specific operational function (traffic management, passenger information, video surveillance, communication with conductors and agents, energy systems management), control room operators frequently have to switch from one tool to another to complete their different tasks.
The multitude of different graphical interfaces and the repetitive data entry hamper productivity, cause needless fatigue, and increase the risk of errors. Additionally, the multiplicity of systems makes any upgrade more complex and more costly.
Two contracts and a relocation
That is why, in late 2022, SYTRAL Mobilités, the organising authority for the Lyon region (Lyon Metropole and the Rhône department), launched Operation “Metro Network CCR” with the double aim of relocating the CCR to an operations room in Vaulx en Velin that enjoys natural light and also modernising all the human-machine interfaces (HMI).
This project includes two main IT development contracts, both awarded to a partnership between Capgemini and the VINCI Energies business unit Enfrasys.
“The first contract covers centralisation of all the different HMIs into a single application,” explains Charles Delucenay, Business Unit Manager at Enfrasys. “The second involves creating a toolkit and data exchange framework common to all systems.”
A single, uniform hypervisor solution to operate all the metro lines presents several advantages: optimised workstation ergonomics; more relevant information shown and therefore greater responsiveness in normal operation or when an incident occurs; improved flexibility in allocating operators according to needs and operational constraints; ease of modernisation of obsolete systems; and improved interoperability through the use of standardised communication protocols with all subsystems, making the system easier to maintain and less costly to upgrade.
Eco-design
Every day, around 700,000 journeys are made using the Lyon Metro. For the organising authority, modernisation of the CCR meets its imperative requirements of quality and operational safety. But the success of a project on this scale depends on users’ ability to adopt and take ownership of the new system. The design of that system therefore plays a key role.
As the Enfrasys business development manager, Thomas Vesque, explains, “We brought in the expertise of Use.Design, a Parisian IU and UX design studio, to define a graphical layout and codesign the HMI together with the CCR operators in a series of iterative workshops. This process will have taken nearly 12 months.”
The VINCI Energies business unit is involved in every phase of the project life cycle, from the design phase through to development, integration, commissioning, and finally, maintaining the system in operational condition.
Due to the need for continuity of service, validation of the IT development must be approached in a calibrated way. Testing takes place at night, between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. This narrow window means that Enfrasys has to schedule testing ahead of time on its own premises.
Operation “Metro Network CCR” has an overall budget of €89 million, with creation of the new control room in Vaulx en Velin scheduled for completion in 2027 and transformation of the current facility in La Part Dieu into an emergency control room due in 2030.
02/16/2024
