The satellite augmentation system (SBAS) provides an important solution for enhancing railway positioning capabilities. This study evaluated the performance of the dedicated SBAS in complex railway environments through field tests. The test train operated on 120-kilometer diverse routes, covering open areas, forested areas, deep-cut sections, and stations, using a high-precision inertial/RTK combined system as the reference true value. The results showed that SBAS could achieve a positioning accuracy of better than 1.5 meters (horizontal, 95%) in open areas and could provide effective integrity protection, with the protection level reliably covering actual errors. In the most challenging deep-cut sections, although the system's accuracy dropped to 5.8 meters, it maintained integrity by significantly improving the protection level (12.8 meters). No harmful misleading information events occurred throughout the test. The study indicates that current SBAS technology can meet the requirements of non-safety-critical applications such as freight tracking and passenger information systems. However, to reach the extreme integrity level required for train safety control, SBAS still needs to be deeply integrated with inertial navigation, odometers, and digital maps to construct a multi-sensor hybrid positioning architecture. This study provides key empirical evidence for the application and standardization of satellite positioning technology in the railway sector.

Ziran Ge. Field Test and Evaluation of a Satellite-Based Augmentation System for Railway Localization. Academic Journal of Engineering and Technology Science (2026), Vol. 9, Issue 1: 33-39. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJETS.2026.090104.

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