Signalling systems serve to provide drivers with information on the state of the track ahead, so that a collision may be avoided. A side effect of this important safety function is that the headway of any rail system is effectively determined by the structure of the signalling system, and particularly the spacing between signals and the amount of information that can be provided in the signal. Rail system headways can be calculated from the signalling system. In practice there are a variety of different methods of keeping trains apart, some which are manual such as train order working or systems involving telegraphs, and others which rely entirely on signalling infrastructure to regulate train movements. Manual systems of working trains are common in area with low numbers of train movements (such as 1 per day), and headways are more often discussed in the context of non-manual systems. Automatic block signalling is probably the most relevant to the calculation of headways.