PTC Archives

Commentary

December 12, 2013
C&S/IT

Are two-person crews less safe than a single engineer?

News item: The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) ordered MTA Metro-North Railroad to have two qualified crewmembers in the lead cab until Metro-North’s signal system is updated to ensure automatic train control (ATC) slows trains automatically if the engineer fails to adhere to a speed reduction requirement greater than 20 mph below maximum allowable speed.

December 11, 2013
C&S/IT

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.

Commentary

December 09, 2013
C&S/IT

Emergency Order 29: Where’s the consistency?

When we investigate accidents and injuries, when we analyze failures of any sort on any railroad, we are searching for a root cause—that determining factor, or factors, that drive the accident from a potential condition to a manifest event.

December 02, 2013
C&S/IT

Metro-North wreck kills four, injures 63

Four people were killed and 63 were injured, 11 critically, when a seven-car Metro-North train derailed on a curve and rolled over at 7:20 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 1. The train, which had originated in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., at 5:54 a.m., was headed southbound toward Grand Central Terminal. It was a diesel-powered push-pull consist operating in push mode, as is standard practice on southbound Metro-North diesel trains. It appears now that human error, rather than mechanical or electrical failure, caused the accident.

November 14, 2013
C&S/IT

Siemens, Bombardier pair on NYMTA PTC

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has awarded a contract to a consortium of Siemens Rail Automation and Bombardier Transportation Rail Control Solutions to install Positive Train Control (PTC) on MTA Metro-North Railroad and MTA Long Island Rail Road, the two largest regional/commuter rail systems in the U.S. The maximum value of the contract is $428 million, including all phases and options.

November 06, 2013
C&S/IT

Railway Interchange 2013: Upbeat, and back for more

Healthy attendance and a record number of suppliers exhibiting at RI2013 established this biennial gathering as a can’t-miss event.

November 01, 2013
C&S/IT

Railroad leaders share data, experience on LEADER®

Officials from BNSF, Canadian Pacific, Ferromex, Florida East Coast, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, and mining conglomerates ArcelorMittal and Vale S.A. met in Dallas at the New York Air Brake Train Dynamic Systems (TDS) Division LEADER® Users Conference Oct. 21-23 to discuss their experiences with LEADER® (Locomotive Engineer Assist/Display and Event Recorder), NYAB’s freight train management system, which is designed to improve train handling and yield significant fuel savings.

October 16, 2013
C&S/IT

Joint venture readies signal training school

Herzog Technologies, Inc. and Signal Training Solutions, Inc., announced Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013, they are partners backing a new Signal Training School in Oceanside, Calif.

October 01, 2013
C&S/IT

Lilee Systems, Alstom debut PTC communications system

Lilee Systems and Alstom have introduced a new, jointly developed communications management technology that they say “will become the backbone of Alstom’s Positive Train Control (PTC) system.” The technology is on display at Railway Interchange 2013, at the RSSI Communications & Signaling Exhibition.

October 01, 2013
C&S/IT

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.”