The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise regulations on changes to Positive Train Control (PTC) systems and reporting PTC system functioning.
Officials at New York MTA’s Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) announced Dec. 23 that implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) was complete, just ahead of the Dec. 31, 2020, federal deadline. They teamed with systems integrator Siemens Mobility and Bombardier Transportation on the project.
In New Jersey Transit’s epic struggle with implementing Positive Train Control by the Dec. 31, 2020 federal deadline, the agency came in under the wire(s), literally.
Requirements for safety-relevant Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs) for train operators are becoming more common around the world.
The Amtrak Office of Inspector General (OIG) has recommended in a new report that Amtrak should “better measure” PTC (Positive Train Control) system reliability. It also noted that Amtrak faces two risks that may diminish the safety benefits of PTC.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Dec. 14, 2020 certified that regional/commuter rail agency South Florida Regional Transportation Authority’s IETMS (Interoperable Electronic Train Management System) complies with the technical requirements for Positive Train Control (PTC), thereby meeting the federally mandated Dec. 31, 2020 final implementation deadline.
The December 2020 issue of Railway Age is now available digitally.
Randy Harris, who spent 40 years with CN in the areas of safety, regulatory and incident investigations, has partnered with Wi-Tronix® LLC to help the company “expand customer asset utilization innovations.” Harris’ services are provided by Ellamar Consulting LLC.
The “magic number” is 100%, and as of the end of third-quarter 2020 (Sept. 30), the railroad industry had reached 99.6% of fully implementing Positive Train Control (PTC) systems by the Dec. 31, 2020 federal deadline, according to the Federal Railroad Administration’s quarterly status update on railroads’ self-reported progress.
California’s North County Transit District (NCTD) has announced the release of the San Diego Pathing Study, outlining how to phase expansion of passenger and freight rail services along the 351-mile Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) rail corridor. The corridor is the second busiest in the nation, moving about $1 billion in freight and more than 8 million Amtrak and regional/commuter rail (NCTD COASTER and Metrolink) riders in a typical year.
