The National CCS DRACAS

The National CCS DRACAS formalises a set of processes for organisations to collaborate and share information to manage failures, faults, and defects to ultimately prevent future failures, incidents or accidents. This includes:

• identifying and informing other affected organisations and coordinating the distribution of information with organisations’ local asset management systems.
• analysing data from multiple organisations to identify previously hidden trends, improvement opportunities and effective corrective actions. 

The National DRACAS is more than an IT system – it is a set of processes incorporating roles and responsibilities for organisations and the industry.

A more detailed summary of the National CCS DRACAS is available in the Concept of Operations, available under ‘Resources’ at the bottom of this page.

Modern CCS systems like the European Train Control System (ETCS) introduce more signalling equipment, traditionally located trackside, onto trains. While this has modernised this industry, because onboard and trackside equipment is managed by different organisations, information sharing is challenging. 

This means that defects within a CCS subsystem can lead to repeated instances of the same negative consequences on multiple occasions, possibly affecting multiple different organisations. Defects can also affect multiple implementations of the system, subsystem, equipment, or component, in different places. So the risk is not just that a particular problem may occur, but that it may occur repeatedly but be undetected because there is no system designed to detect and analyse data across multiple subsystems at a nationwide level. 

The National CCS DRACAS would help prevent these types of problems.

The idea of implementing a National DRACAS has been in the industry for decades. Until now, there was no industry agreement on: the processes, the benefits and how stakeholders could cooperate to realise the benefits.

RSSB have used Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to develop a new approach to the National CCS DRACAS, creating a fresh and feasible set of processes that respond directly to industry concerns such as data sharing with competing organisations. These processes are detailed in the RSSB System Model and Concept of Operations, which were developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders and overseen by the DRACAS Steering Group.

The publication of a Rail Industry Standard in September 2023 marks the first time a set of processes have been agreed by industry: RIS-0707-CCS issue two, Management of Control Command and Signalling Failures, Faults and Defects

Implementing the National CCS DRACAS is a very complex project, in which roles and responsibilities need to be clearly identified.

The Asset Integrity Group (AIG) has worked with industry stakeholders to identify the different workstreams and projects required for implementing the National CCS DRACAS. This included four workshops with 47 invited participants, drawn from infrastructure managers, railway undertakings, ROSCOs, suppliers, and cross-industry groups. The workshops covered a range of topics, with particular focus on the principles of reporting and sharing data. Drawing on the wide range of experience and perspectives held by different organisations has enabled the project to identify critical work packages, critical dependencies, and workstream interfaces.

The structured and detailed roadmap has also identified the activities in which multiple workstreams will need to collaborate during the implementation process. A links to the roadmap can be found under ‘Resources’ at the bottom of this page. 

We have prepared three presentations to help you understand what a National CCS DRACAS is, and how it would work.

What is a Defect Reporting, Analysis and Corrective Action System (DRACAS)?

Unwanted events, unwanted actions, system performance influencing factors, and defects

What is the National CCS DRACAS?