Men of different ages gathered in the lobby of the Examination and Monitoring Centre for Train Drivers (CEMM UTK) in Warsaw. With documents in their hands and with coffee from the coffee-machine. Future train drivers are preparing for the exams so that they can get the necessary certificates and licences in the same building. And not only future drivers - current train drivers are also taking advanced training here. The centre itself started work in 2023. Last year, 1612 people passed the exams.
According to the Polish Railway Transport Office, the knowledge and skills of train driver candidates are tested ‘at the European level’, and ‘independently and innovatively’.
By “innovation”, Polish railway officials are primarily referring to the use of the latest technology and IT solutions. We enter a room where they are embodied in three simulators: two of electric locomotives and one of a shunting locomotive.
The cabs of these vehicles are fully recreated in enclosed large ‘boxes’ on supports with full motion platforms. Every detail is painstakingly recreated - there are all the monitors and handles, communications’ system, as well as all the indicators and buttons as in a real train driver compartment.
Sitting in the driver's seat, you can see on the monitor not only what the train driver sees ahead in the dynamics - the side windows and virtual side mirrors also have an image that also adjusts as the train moves.
Even before this virtual train starts moving and you hear the wheels clattering, the radio starts to work. The sound system plays it and the intercom. You can get in touch with the dispatcher, that is, in this case, the instructor. In addition, the sounds of a ventilator can be heard in the cab.
During the virtual movement of the train, real vibration and shocks are felt, and when you change the tilt angle on the screen, the cab also tilts. The platform allows you to adjust the forces affecting the vehicle, depending on what exactly is happening to it, according to the algorithm you choose.
"Simulators play a very important role in the process of training drivers. And the majority of those who are tested on simulators successfully pass the exam," says Michał Wierzbicki, CEO of SIM Factor, the company that delivered simulators for CEMM UTK.
It is the simulators of this company that we see in the Examination and Monitoring Centre for Train Drivers. The company has been operating since 2017, and according to Wierzbicki, to date, its specialists have created 8,000 km of realistically recreated digital routes. Most of them are different sections of the Polish railway, while railway sections outside Poland currently amount to 2000 km.
"It takes a lot of time to recreate the routes. We fully recreate all the objects that the driver sees while driving on a particular section. We do it to the smallest detail, so that no one can say: "I know this route well, and this house you created in the computer programme is not as yellow as the real one." A realistically recreated route allows the driver to better remember the peculiarities of a particular direction, characteristic architectural and landscape elements during training on the simulator," says Rafal Trznadel, Sales Director at SIM Factor and one of company co-founders.
The company employs over a hundred people in two offices (in Warsaw and Krakow): 30 programmers and the same number of graphic artists and designers, and another 25 specialists are involved in production.
At the invitation of the Polish company, CFTS visited its office and production location in Warsaw. There, we were shown how the programme is created. An employee of the company works with a satellite image and "pulls" the railway track that will be displayed during the virtual movement of the train.
Rafal Trznadel shows a variety of effects that can be used during training. He launches smoke on the railway track, ‘pushes’ virtual people from the platforms onto the rails.
In general, the program allows you not only to create the effect of rain, snow or fog, but also takes into account the season and time to place the sun, etc. in the "right place". If you need, for example, a blinding effect.
A common element is animals standing in the way of the train. You press a lever for a sound signal and the boar or roe deer quickly move away. Unlike a trolley that suddenly appears in your path. Given the speed at which your virtual machine is moving, it’s not always possible to slow down completely.
For a change, our instructor places a piano on the railway tracks in front of the train. Other objects like cars or even drunk pedestrians - they are all here to test drivers’ attention span and reaction time, as well as proper procedure and order of handling emergency situations. The software creates logs for every event that immediately highlight the actual performance against a standard and desired one.
In the building where the company's office and facilities are located, we can see both monitors and control panels for vehicles and the same movable platform that was demonstrated in the exam centre. The first one doesn't offer a “full immersion” experience - you're not in a closed cabin that tilts or vibrates in the event of a collision.
SIM Factor offers a full range of train simulators - from full cabin on motion platforms to smaller SMART desk replicas and SMART LITE - a compact tabletop simulator, that makes it easy to transport and deploy, all using the same software and railway routes. A huge advantage of SIM Factor’s offering is the free lifetime upgrade of railway routes, which comes with every simulator - even the basic SMART LITE. The experience for users is the same and in Poland, many schools have ordered the SMART LITE, while train operators and CEMM UTK have opted for bigger and more advanced SMART and full cabin simulators.
However, if you don't pretend to be a real driver, but simply test this "toy", your actions and reactions are still different from those observed during a real exam.
While the railway industry is the cornerstone of SIM Factor’s activity, it’s not the only one which SIM Factor provides advanced simulators. The company has also supplied space flight simulators for the Silesian Planetarium and hologram images of military vehicles for defence companies during the International Defence Industry Exhibition MSPO in Kielce. As part of R&D projects there are also several other applications for its simulators, including aviation (luggage handling and airport security) and energy sectors (e.g. wind turbine maintenance). Nevertheless, the railway sector is its main focus.
In total, it has already delivered 56 simulators to customers, including 29 units on the domestic Polish market. Among the latest international successes is the signing of a contract with CFR Calatori S.A., Romania's largest state-owned passenger operator, for the supply of two full-cab locomotive simulators.
"Romania is another important step in our international growth after the Czech Republic, Lithuania and the UK, and a key market for further development," says Michał Wierzbicki, SIM Factor co-founder and CEO.
In general, simulators have become an integral part of driver training in the European Union, but they are used for more than just that. They help to determine how changes in railway systems or operations affect driver behavior by recording their reactions to a particular event. By observing representative groups of drivers and using simulated scenarios, much more data can be obtained than could be collected during the actual operations of a real train.
As for Ukraine, we have some experience in implementing simulators in our country. For example, back in 2012, a simulator (a copy of the cab) for Hyundai Rotem train drivers was installed at the Darnytsia station in Kyiv in the training centre.
And before the start of the full-scale war, the first simulator for drivers working on American General Electric T33AS diesel locomotives was installed in Volnovakha, Donetsk region. It has a recreated real route, buildings, signalling, etc. At the time, Ukrzaliznytsia noted that this was not only a combination of theory and practice, but also a significant saving in the budget allocated for each locomotive crew trip.
In addition, it is known that Metinvest bought the diesel locomotive simulator to train its shunting locomotive drivers in Mariupol.
Therefore, there is hope that after the war ends and the economy returns to a peaceful course, innovative technologies for training drivers will become more widespread in Ukraine.
