The Brussels North and Brussels South railway stations are linked via the busiest railway tunnel in the world: Up to 1100 trains pass the tunnel each day on one of its six tracks. Most of Belgian circling passenger trains pass this connection, including the ICE, Thalys, TGV and Eurostar. Inside the tunnel is also the Brussels Central station, with three island platforms which is the location of the ASE number recognition system

Apart from safety relevant information, the Belgian train traffic control system contains very little information on the train properties and its composition. Due to its strategic central position, the new train number recognition system from ASE is able to provide Infrabel with true wagon order and movement in real time. Additionally, the information provided by the traffic control system is linked to the detected trains.

The installation inside the tunnel paired with ambitious requirements where challenging: The maximum velocity of 60 km/h requires highly light sensitive cameras and short exposure times while using high frame rates and low image compression. The short exposure times require strong illumination which must never blind the conductor and passengers. These problems are only aggravated by the low distance between camera and train of about 80 cm, requiring wide angles of aperture for both the cameras as well as the illumination. These tasks were successfully solved with a new illumination and camera system developed by ASE AG.

Based on the outstanding experience with this system, Infabel is planning to install more of these systems at Belgian harbours, allowing Infrabel to record most of the Belgian freight wagon stock.