Proposal:Unified ETCS Signals (railway)

Unified ETCS signals tagging
Proposal status:	Proposed (under way)
Proposed by:	AwFi
Applies to:
Definition:	This proposal is meant to unify all the national ETCS markers tags into an harmonised tagging scheme valid everywhere.
Draft started:	2025-12-03
Proposed on:	2025-12-20
RFC start:	2025-12-20

Problem Statement

ETCS is an European born signalling systems that is nowadays used all over the world. At the moment of the writing of this proposal, there are many ways to tag these signals that mostly differ by each state decision on how to tag them, but the markers are the same.

Pantograph and electrification markers are included in this proposal.

GSM-R signs might be another field of standardisation, if agreed.

Proposal

The proposal is to create a unified scheme of tagging so that independently of where the installation is, as the markers will be the same, it's possible to tag them easily. National signs to indicate the beginning of ETCS are not in this proposal since those are not standardized, but there is a suggestion to avoid some problems with multiple signals on the same location.

Existing tag schemes are for example:

France:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=FR:REP_ETCS (called block marker but it's a stop marker, use type stop marker)

Italy:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=IT:ETCS:SM
- Level transition: railway:signal:train_protection=IT:ETCS:LT
- Location marker: railway:signal:train_protection=IT:ETCS:LM
Belgium:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=BE:PRA (use type block marker, also triangle possible but for TVM. Separation needed, keep old tag only for TVM?)

Finland:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=FI:T-600A (use type block marker)
- Level transition: railway:signal:train_protection=FI:T-602A
Netherlands:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=NL:228(use type block marker, also triangle possible but for TVM. Separation needed, keep old tag only for TVM?)
Poland:
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=PL-PKP:wetcs10
- Location marker: railway:signal:train_protection=PL-PKP:wetcs11

Switzerland:
- Stop maker: railway:signal:train_protection=ETCS2:stop_marker (use type block marker)
United Kingdom
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=GB-NR:ETCS (use type block marker)

Germany
- Stop marker: railway:signal:train_protection=DE-ESO:ne14
- Location marker: railway:signal:train_protection=DE-ESO:blockkennzeichen (LZB block marker and ETCS location marker are tagged the same, would need separation)

If there are missing tagging schemes, please add them.

Rationale

Having different tags for the same objects makes little sense if the only variable is the state of the state where said object falls, so unifying it should be something useful, also to allow easier comparisons and data processing. So the tagging scheme is simple: no national prefix, as it is something worldwide, and keep the tags simple and intuitive. All the markers use the names and functions of the official documentation.

Electrical marker are also standardized and included in this proposal.

Tagging

Main marker boards

ETCS transition marker
Stop marker
Location Marker

ETCS transition marker

Point where the transition to ETCS is possible or must be done.

ETCS stop marker

Marker to unambiguously identify a location that must not be passed without a MA (Movement Authority) or other equivalent instructions.

ETCS location marker

Marker to unambiguously identify a location that is not safety critical, might represent the EOA location (End of Authority).

National ETCS begin/end markers

Markers that indicate the begin or end of ETCS or other signalling systems, if indicated, should follow the scheme used for level transition.railway:signal:train_protection:system_change=*

This allows to have ETCS marker boards and other signals such as level transition on the same location

Electrical marker boards

Neutral section related

Distant Begin of neutral section
Begin of neutral section
End of neutral section

Distant begin of neutral section

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=power_off_advance

Begin of neutral section

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=power_off

End of Neutral section

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=power_on

Pantograph related

Distant lower pantograph
Lower pantograph
Raise pantograph

Distant Lower pantograph

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=pantograph_down_advance

Lower pantograph

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=pantograph_down

Raise pantograph

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=pantograph_up

End of catenary related

Distant end of catenary
End of catenary

Distant end of catenary

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=end_of_catenary_advance

End of catenary

additionally:

railway:signal:electricity:type=end_of_catenary

Common tags

Standard railway signals tags and keys are not listed as it is out of the scope of this proposal and are very common and widely used (position, direction, ref, ...).

railway:signal:position=* can be used also to differentiate the arrow pointing to the left/right/down since the it is always pointing to the track.

Additionally some other tags that could be useful are listed below.

railway:signal:train_protection:main:caption=* optional field, might be the name of the locality for main marker boards, reference goes into ref=*

Possible problems

Sometimes the transition marker and the stop marker are located in the same pole, for this reason the tagging scheme changes slightly compared to the standard used as of now. This change helps to prevent many cases where level transition or other national signs are on the same location of stop markers. It is recommended to update national schemes for this additional part of the key. "main" is used for block/stop/location markers as they have some similarities with main signals. "System change" is used to indicate a generic change of train protection system, using something broader than "level transition" that might be sketchy on other national train protection signals.

Examples


Picture	Tags
Stop marker followed by level transition with other italian signals	Stop marker alone (in front): `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped) `ref=20` `railway:signal:train_protection:main=ETCS:stop_marker` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:form=sign` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:caption=Castelfranco`
	Level Transition with the other signals (on the back): `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped)
Level transition and stop marker with other italian signals	Level transition and stop marker on the same pole with other signals: `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped) ... [all other signals on the pole] ... `railway:signal:train_protection:system_change=ETCS:level_transition` `railway:signal:train_protection:system_change:form=sign` `railway:signal:train_protection:main=ETCS:stop_marker` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:form=sign` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:caption=Castelfranco` `ref=20`
Stop marker in Austria	Stop marker in a standalone installation: `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:train_protection:main=ETCS:stop_marker` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:form=sign` `ref=SMR201R`
German signals and stop marker	Level transition andother conventional signals on the same pole: `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped) ... [all other signals on the pole] ... `railway:signal:train_protection:main=ETCS:stop_marker` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:form=sign`
Location markers in Switzerland	Location markers in standalone application (valid for both): `railway=signal` `railway:signal:direction=forward/backward` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:position=left/right` (depending on how the way is mapped) `railway:signal:train_protection:main=ETCS:location_marker` `railway:signal:train_protection:main:form=sign` `ref=VIL536S`(left one)/`ref=VIL536S`(right one)

Impact on Data Consumers

This change would impact https://openrailwaymap.app and https://openrailwaymap.org in the signalling/train protection layer, not rendering anymore the signals when migrated to this new scheme. At the same time, adding the support for this tagging scheme would ease the implementation of worldwide ETCS markers rendering, reducing complexity of having many different implementations for each state.

Features/Pages affected

All national signals pages with support for ETCS markers tagging.

External discussions

https://github.com/hiddewie/OpenRailwayMap-vector/discussions/371
OpenRailwayMap channel on OSM Discord server

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.

Proposal:Unified ETCS Signals (railway)

Contents

Problem Statement

Proposal

Rationale