IIRC Frodsham Junction and Mickle Trafford boxes only control color light signals. Norton box appears to have been abolished recently (windows all boarded up)
Norton closed on September 20th with control of the Runcorn East area passing to Frodsham Junction 'box.
That's the goal of ECTS Level 2. There are some working implementations, for example the Cambrian Line used it as a replacement for RETB, but I'm not sure how ready it is for widespread use.
I'd rather imagine that ECTS as a technology is long since obsolete.
What has replaced it? No one has got level 3 to work properly yet so I am not convinced it is.
I'm not sure any of that kit is on the Cambrian network (not sure about axle counters), though there are ETCS balises in the track and a radio network.
As @The Planner says, ECTS hasn't been fully implemented anywhere so I'm not sure how you reached the conclusion that it's obsolete.
A Level 2 implementation is a hybrid model where train detection and integrity assurance uses whatever method is already in use - in the case of the Cambrian the physical infrastructure all went in the 1980s* when RETB went in.
"Self-driving" cars are so far from being fail-safe that even in the US trials, they are required to be monitored at all times by a person on board ready to take over. Several cases where the on-board person wasn't paying adequate attention have resulted in accidents and even fatalities. While a railway application would be simpler, I'd suggest the technology needs to be improved markedly to be suitable for replacing signalling systems.
I don't think the suggestion was that autonomous vehicle tech be directly transferred to the railway, rather it was being used as an example of advanced tech in general. "In a world that has X, how hard can it be to do this other thing that is a little bit similar to X?"
ECTS Level 2 doesn't use any of the existing systems it replaces AWS, TPWS and ATP. It is fixed block and at junctions/station areas it uses track circuits/axel counters to ensure accurate train detection. Elsewhere there are just balises to ensure accurate train location is maintained.
I thought there were two sub-levels in Level 2. In the first the sticks on poles went but the existing detection stayed, then at the second stage everything moved over to ETCS. Then at Level 3 train positioning and integrity moved on-board which allowed the full switch to moving block.
ETCS level 2 still uses traditional train detection (track circuits or axle counters) in all areas (Offical descriptions of the levels here if it helps) which can be existing systems (though admitedly these probably will often be upgrade at the same time ETCS is installed) and the uk implementations still even have traditional route setting interlockings under the RBC (radio block controller). You are correct that it replaces all the train protection systems, but that is also true of level 1. The difference from level 1 to level 2 is that movement authority is conveyed to the driver via the cab display (and therefore continuously checked) rather than via signal aspect only visible when the signal is (ans only 'visible' to the train by the balise at the signal). It is only level 3 which gets the train to do the position/integrity detection (with as you say balises used to re-calibrate the trains idea of it's position) which will be done in all areas not just plain line (Though as pointed out by others above there has still yet to be an actual major deployment of level 3).
Level 2 originally was all without signals. But because we in the uk are special, we added a sub level ("ETCS Level 2 with signals overlay" I believe is nearly the official name rather than just calling it A/B) for thameslink where trains fitted for etcs work to level 2 style movement authorities, whilst non-fitted trains can work the same line using the signals.
Thanks, that makes more sense than my muddled mess.
Are they going to retain islands of semaphores at Liskeard and St Erth, or are they going to make a like-for-like replacement by colour lights, at least on the mainline? I presume that Roskear Junction is already completely colour light.
There will be no changes at St Erth. St Blazey and Liskeard will have a few minor changes as they will become "fringe" boxes to Exeter Panel. Ironically after the work is done Liskeard box will work with Plymouth Panel to the east and Exeter Panel to the west!
Crewe Shrewsbury is probably a case why it hasn't been done again, the idea may be sound but the scheme was terrible.
Very unreliable - frequent issues with axle counter failures or non detection of the level crossings. Even though it's controlled all the way from Cardiff, the folks there often know what the weather is like in Shropshire. If it starts raining heavily, the level crossings stop working.
I think many of the good ideas in 'modular' have been subsumed into how standard resignalling is done cost effectively today, particularly the use of axle counters and lightweight low maintenance folding LED signals, and how signalling power supplies and data communications can be configured, especially in rural areas. Modular didn't really save much, if any, trackside equipment. It just made each trackside cabinet more standardised, a worthy aim, but things were going that way anyway. On the downside, modular was based on a limited range of standard layout modules to simplify interlocking data. While perhaps useful for the very simplest basic single track railways with low speed passing loops, for anything more complex, the full range of layout signalling techniques to optimise for efficient operations were not available.
