On November 15, sponsored by the National Railway Administration and hosted by CASCO, the kick-off review meeting for the Research on the Signaling System of Urban (Suburban) Railways Based on the "Integration of Four Networks" was successfully held in Shanghai. This review meeting invited seven review experts and academicians from industry regulatory units, operation units, universities, and design institutes, as well as leaders and guests from 11 participating research units to discuss and exchange ideas. Zhang Yi, President of CASCO, attended the meeting and delivered a speech, while Wang Tao, Deputy Director of the Science and Law Department of National Railway Administration, presided over the meeting.

At the meeting, CASCO, as the leading research unit, presented the kick-off report and reports on three specialized studies on behalf of the research team. The report addressed numerous challenges faced by the "Integration of Four Networks", such as inconsistent standards, incompatible systems, non-shared information, and inconsistent management, and proposed three major research tasks: constructing technical system, relevant standards, and simulation testing platform for the integration of CBTC and CTCS signaling systems. This provides a practical technical path to solve the problem of interconnection between lines with different signaling systems.

The experts at the meeting provided professional and detailed comments on the presented content and engaged in interactive exchanges with members of the research team regarding research content, methods, and other aspects, offering constructive guidance. After rigorous evaluation, the expert group highly affirmed the scientific and practical significance of the project and unanimously agreed to pass the kick-off review.

After the meeting, the experts and scholars visited Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Railway Intelligent Dispatching Command System led by CASCO and observed a live demonstration of the prototype functions of the dual-system "CTCS+CBTC". They expressed deep appreciation for CASCO's preliminary research results and also expressed anticipation and concern for subsequent research.

With the successful conclusion of the review meeting, this research project has officially entered the substantive research stage. In the future, CASCO will closely cooperate with the member units of the research team, leverage the combined strengths of "industry-academia-research-application", solidly promote research efforts, and strive to make positive contributions to the construction of the "Integration of Four Networks" with fruitful results.