Managing the lineup
Strategic business plans aligned with a strategic technology plan can provide more-effective interchange data and traffic control processes.
PTC
Taming the PTC elephant
The pressing issue for the railroad industry’s communications and signal engineers is whether or not Positive Train Control (PTC) is going to be complete and fully functional by the fast-approaching Dec. 31, 2015, deadline.
Commentary
Data drought haunts FRA crew-size mandate
By the Federal Railroad Administration’s own congressional testimony, the years 2012 and 2013 were among the railroads’ safest on record, while the relatively few train crashes were mostly the result of human error and track defects.
PATH opens WTC Platform A
PATH personnel handed out notices to passengers Tuesday morning, Feb. 25, 2014, heralding the opening of the first permanent (or “modernized”) platform at its World Trade Center Station in lower Manhattan.
FTA releases comprehensive CBTC study
The Federal Transit Administration has published a Rail Transit Signal and Control Systems Research paper that provides “a comprehensive evaluation of CBTC technology.” The research project was conducted by Alan Rumsey, Lori Colangelo, and Nigel Astell of Delcan Corp. and Nabil Ghaly of New York Rail Technology, PE PC.
New from Cisco and Lilee Systems: PTC 1.0
In April 2013, Cisco and Lilee Systems announced plans for what they call “the industry’s first end-to-end communications network for PTC with a proof-of-concept network, located in the San Francisco Bay area, to verify communications architecture.”
AAR to Senate panel: PTC deadline unrealistic. Here’s why
Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger on Wednesday, June 19, 2013 told a Senate Commerce Committee panel that, despite investments of roughly $2.8 billion since 2008 on implementing positive train control (PTC) to meet the Rail Safety Improvement Act deadline of Dec. 31, 2015, the freight railroads have determined it will not be possible to have a fully interoperable nationwide PTC system up and running by that time.
Commentary
The camera never blinks
“Here’s looking at you, kid,” is a cherished line from the movie Casablanca,but when the looking is through a hidden camera lens in the locker room or even visibly trained on crewmembers inside a locomotive cab, well, you won’t hear the more famous line, “This could be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
CSX’s capex strategy
From intermodal infrastructure to doublestack clearances to new locomotives, CSX continues to invest.