The National Transportation Safety Board’s annual “Ten Most Wanted” list of safety improvements is aimed at reducing the 35,000 annual transportation fatalities. While rail-related fatalities are a small fraction of that number, rail safety makes this year’s list, released Wednesday, with an entry on Positive Train Control.
The California Transportation Commission has voted to release $39.8 million in allocations toward work to advance the Caltrain Modernization Program and prepare the rail corridor, which connects San Francisco with San Jose and Gilroy, for a future “blended” system with California High Speed Rail.
Siemens, best known in the communications and signals area as a supplier for rail transit systems (such as New York City Transit’s Canarsie Line inaugural CBTC installation) announced Sept. 24 that it has developed Positive Train Control technology for main line North American railroads.
The Federal Railroad Administration says substantial progress has been made in establishing Positive Train Control (PTC) in the U.S., but acknowledges that the congressionally mandated deadline to do so, Dec. 15, 2015, will not be met.
Wabtec Corp. Friday said it has signed contracts worth about $25 million to provide components, including on-board Positive Train Control (PTC) equipment, for 50 new transit cars being built by Hyundai-Rotem for Denver’s Regional Transit District (RTD).
Flanders, N.J.-based Protran Technology said June 15 that it has landed a contract with a major energy company to outfit locomotives leased from two Class I railroads “with the first advance warning system to help prevent accidents and deaths related to shove moves.”
ProTran Technology says it was awarded its first major contract from Brazil’s Belo Horizonte Metro for the “Protracker / PTC” track worker protection overlay system for advance warning of approaching trains.
Invensys Rail Corp. has acquired privately held PHW, Inc. from the current owner/managers for up to $24 million. Invensys says the acquisition was completed May 10. Pittsburgh-based PHW, Inc. will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Invensys Rail Corp.
The Surface Transportation Board Tuesday officially cleared the way for Michigan’s Department of Transportation to acquire two sections of rail right-of-way from Norfolk Southern Corp., totaling about 135 miles, for eventual upgrading to 110 mph passenger rail speeds.
Amtrak and the Michigan Department of Transportation have received federal approval to increase maximum speeds of Amtrak trains in western Michigan and northern Indiana to 110 mph, following successful installation and testing of a Positive Train Control system on Amtrak-owned trackage between Kalamazoo, Mich., and Porter, Ind., part of its Chicago-to-Detroit service route.
