(Anchorage television station KTVA posted the following story by Brett Shepard on its website on August 26.)
ANCHORAGE — Alaska already has some of the safest rail lines in the nation, but that’s not stopping the Alaska Railroad from making them even safer.
The railroad recently announced they will begin implementing a new collision avoidance system over the next year called the Quantum Train Sentinel System.
Collision systems are designed to help prevent train-to-train collisions, enforce speed limits on trains, and provide protection for roadway workers and their equipment.
This new automated system will be much more efficient than the current system.
According to Andy Schiestl of the Alaska Railroad, “It eliminates the paper work, it eliminates the verbal discussions back and forth between the crews, it frees up the radio traffic so it can be used for other things in issuing authorities or monitoring locations of trains that are out there.”
The project is being implemented in several phases.
By December all locomotives will be equipped with the system and shortly after all hy-rail vehicles will also have them.
The Alaska Railroad will be the first railroad in the nation to use a system like this and they hope to have it fully operational by 2005.