Frauscher’s US subsidiary plans exhibit debut at Railway Interchange 2015
Frauscher, an Austria-based inductive sensor technology company, will be exhibiting for the first time at Railway Interchange 2015.
Communications
RailComm plans new product launch for Railway Interchange 2015
RailComm will launch its new smart monitoring and analytics platform, RailComm Insight™, as well as new software and hardware products for yard automation and mainline dispatching at Railway Interchange 2015.
NMRR expands its LDVR platform
Railhead Corporation has announced that New Mexico Railrunner will be enhancing its current Locomotive Digital Video Recorder (LDVR) systems. NMRR is expanding its current LDVR platform from 4 to 8 channels and adding Railhead’s proprietary twin view camera. The 8 channel LDVR will enable NMRR to add cameras as needed to coincide with the upcoming inward facing camera mandate while the twin view camera will provide two field of views (narrow and wide) to assist in incident investigations. NMRR found the twin camera (TC-690) more accurately replicates the engineer’s point of view (POV), than a single fixed lens camera. The narrow provides a more focal POV, great for signal capturing, while the wide view is great for capturing last second crossing incidents or track side views.
Mohr joins HNTB
HNTB Corp. has named Laura Mohr as a Vice President and Rail and Transit Group Director with responsibility for Southern California projects. She is based in Los Angeles.
GAO report confirms need for PTC deadline extension
A new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that most U.S. railroads will not be able to implement Positive Train Control (PTC) technology by the current Dec. 31, 2015 deadline, and that legislation extending the deadline is necessary.
Matt Cole named president of CTS
Matt Cole, EVP and deputy of Strategy and Business Development for Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS), has been appointed president of CTS and senior vice president of Cubic Corporation, effective Oct. 1, 2015. Steve Shewmaker, who plans to retire in 2016, has been appointed chairman of CTS.
Jamie Miller named new president and CEO of GE Transportation
GE has appointed Jamie Miller as president and CEO of GE Transportation, the company announced Sept. 14, 2015. Miller succeeds Russell Stokes, who will lead GE’s Energy Management business, effective Oct. 1.
Beyond basic AEI
Class I railroads have been seeking a rugged mobile AEI (Automatic Equipment Identification) application that will provide them with detailed railcar inspection and maintenance functions in addition to asset tracking. Several are currently evaluating a promising new device offered by Trimble, a manufacturer of rugged handheld computer devices.
Alstom lands Metrolinx traffic control center contract
Metrolinx, the government agency that oversees public transportation in Canada’s Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area in Ontario Province, on Sept. 10, 2015 awarded Alstom Transport a contract worth $127 million (C$168.5 million) million for a new computer-based integrated traffic control system for the GO Transit regional/commuter rail network.
Commentary
Is PTC a prelude to crewless trains?
An assistant to the president of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company once said, “… let us direct our thoughts toward what would be required in the way of equipment or system for the safe operation of a train with no person at the controls. It is obvious that such a step must be made if we are to approach crewless train operation. It is equally obvious that the crewless train would have no one to look at wayside signals and therefore we should begin thinking in terms of an overall system that does not require wayside signals.”