LLPA design and integration for the Morley-Ellenbrook Line
The Morley-Ellenbrook Line added 21 km of railway and five new stations to Perth's north-eastern corridor. The line opened to passengers in December 2024. Communications systems formed part of the infrastructure needed to bring those stations into service.
Wileo was first engaged by Rail Systems Australia to provide specialist systems design and integration expertise. When Rail Systems Australia was later acquired by SYSTRA, we continued providing support within the new organisation. Over a two-year period, we delivered more than 3,000 hours of expert support, with a team of up to five at peak contributing to the design, installation and commissioning of critical Long Line Public Address (LLPA) systems.
Working through the integration challenges
The planning and delivery of the Morley-Ellenbrook Line presented the following challenges, including:
- Speech intelligibility in noisy station environments
Some stations were planned in the middle of major highways, where high background noise posed a risk to speech intelligibility. Early intelligibility analysis identified the risk and informed the installation of noise walls to keep announcements intelligible for passengers. - LLPA integration over a routed network
The work integrated the PTA's LLPA system, which used legacy layer-2 protocols, with a routed IP Backbone Network (IPBN) using Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN). This added complexity in ensuring compatibility and reliability across multiple technologies.
Wileo helped overcome these challenges by:
- Delivering factual, unbiased reports and documentation to guide decisions.
- Investigating system behaviour across interconnected platforms.
- Identifying and escalating bugs across vendor platforms.
- Adjusting system configurations where required and working collaboratively with vendors and designers through to resolution.
This work supported fault resolution and the verification of interfaces between the LLPA system and the wider network.
Wileo’s Contribution
Our services spanned the full project lifecycle, including:
- Announcement intelligibility design and validation of performance outcomes.
- LLPA design and systems configurations
- Deliverable production and review, including CAD, system information modelling, and technical reports.
- Integration support for LLPA, Passenger Information Networks, and IPBN systems.
- Pre-commissioning and commissioning activities, covering FAT, SAT, and SIT.
- On-site troubleshooting and investigations, supporting issue resolution during delivery.
Support through design and commissioning
The project brought together LLPA design, network integration and commissioning within a wider rail delivery programme. Wileo worked with SYSTRA, vendors and designers to investigate interfaces and support the system through testing. For a project involving communications integration or commissioning, discuss the scope with Wileo.