The deployment of double-headed axle counters can significantly reduce the impact of signalling failures in complex areas such as junctions and station approaches. However, its application is normally defined based on the designer’s engineering judgment.

We have developed an in-house tool to assess the impact of the deployment of double-headed axle counters in each location.

This solution has been combined with an optimisation algorithm to assess the combined benefits in a complex network, quantifying the gains in terms of train movement performance and minimising the quantities of double-headed devices to be deployed.