Positive Train Control

NTSB urges rail industry to take positive train control to the next level

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The rail industry should do more to leverage the safety benefits of positive train control (PTC),...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ntsb-urges-rail-industry-to-take-positive-train-control-to-the-next-level

Transport Canada prepares to implement train safety technology

a train passes through a forest. There are mountains flanking both sides of the train, and there is a snow-capped mountain behind the train,

Transport Canada has taken the first steps to ensure major freight railways in the country deploy enhanced train control, a safety technology that tracks the distances between trains.

Enhanced train control would be Canada’s version of what is called positive train control (PTC) in the U.S., where the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires certain freight and passenger railroads — including the American operations of Canadian Pacific (NYSE: CP) and CN (NYSE: CNI) — to install the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/transport-canada-prepares-to-implement-train-safety-technology

Transportation Safety Board of Canada calls for rail safety technology implementation

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is recommending all of the country’s major railways that travel along high-speed corridors or key routes adopt technology similar to positive train control in the United States.

The recommendation for Transport Canada to implement “physical fail-safe train controls” is one of TSB’s determinations that resulted from studying why two CN (NYSE: CNI) trains collided near Portage la Prairie in Manitoba in January 2019. That incident caused derailments...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/transportation-safety-board-of-canada-calls-for-rail-safety-technology-implementation

From safety to technology: Rail initiatives in infrastructure bill

A photograph of a train with tank cars crossing a rail crossing.

From positive train control to passenger rail, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed Monday by President Joe Biden covers a gamut of safety, capital improvement funding and technological initiatives aimed at bolstering freight rail. 

Rail-related provisions included in the $1.3 trillion bill, according to the Association of American Railroads, the Association of Short Line and Regional Railroads, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the Coalition for America’s...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/from-safety-to-technology-rail-initiatives-in-infrastructure-bill

Regulators: Railroads beat deadline for anti-crash technology rollout

The long-awaited rollout of anti-crash technology known as positive train control (PTC) among all railroads required to install the technology is now complete, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

PTC, which was mandated as part of the Rail Safety Act of 2008, is now in operation on all 57,536 required freight and passenger railroad route miles – including seven Class I railroads, Amtrak and 28 commuter railroads – prior to the year-end deadline set by Congress.

“Achieving 100%...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/regulators-railroads-beat-deadline-for-anti-crash-technology-rollout

US Class I railroads are almost fully interoperable

A photograph of a Union Pacific train traveling from a rail yard.

The U.S. operations of the Class I railroads are nearly fully interoperable, with 91.6% of the network reaching interoperability by the end of the third quarter, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). 

At the end of the second quarter, U.S. Class I rail operations were 79% interoperable. 

Interoperability is the final step toward becoming fully compliant with the federal positive train control (PTC) mandate. By Dec. 31, the U.S. operations of the Class I railroads,...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/us-class-i-railroads-are-almost-fully-interoperable

Commentary: High-tech railcar/inventory management

A photograph of a train nearing a rail yard.

As previously described by multiple reports, customers have not been happy with the tracking of their valuable goods on freight trains. But within the next three years, shippers should see significant improvements in the age-old question, “Where are my goods?”

Steps underway now would introduce smart communicating devices to supplement the older RFID tags and manual recording used to date. Why? In part because railroads themselves want better train management data.

And today’s senior rail...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/commentary-high-tech-rr-carinventory-management

US Class I railroads closer to fully implementing positive train control

A photograph of a train at a rail yard.

The U.S. operations of the Class I railroads are closer to reaching full compliance with the federal mandate to implement positive train control (PTC) by the end of December, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

FRA’s data tracks how far along freight and passenger railroads are with implementing PTC, a safety technology aimed at reducing accidents because the technologies enable parties to see where trains are located on a network in relation to each other.

The data...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/us-class-i-railroads-closer-to-fully-implementing-positive-train-control

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