(The following article by Gregory Richards was posted on the Virginian-Pilot website on January 12.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp.’s effort to develop a computerized train control system took a step forward this week when federal regulators approved the first such system for another big railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., which operates in the West.
Known as positive train control, these long-awaited systems promise to improve railroad safety and efficiency.
Displays in the locomotive cab will warn train crews of dangerous conditions, such as excessive speed or a misaligned switch in the train’s path. If the crew fails to act, the system will automatically apply the train’s brakes to prevent accidents. The systems also will pinpoint train locations at all times, allowing railroads to operate more trains over the same set of tracks by decreasing the distance between them.
The Federal Railroad Administration gave Burlington Northern, based in Fort Worth, Texas, the go-ahead Monday to implement the technology on 35 freight lines in 17 western states.
“This is a major achievement that marks the beginning of a new era of rail safety,” Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman said in a statement. “The steps FRA and railroads are taking show that applying positive train control technology can work and will provide important safety benefits.”
Traditionally, railroad dispatchers told train crews to proceed, switch tracks, slow and stop with signal lights mounted along rail lines and with radios.
With positive train control, global positioning system satellites, digital data communication networks, track-side monitoring units and computers in the locomotives do the job.
Norfolk Southern, based in Norfolk, concluded preliminary testing last month on its still developing computerized dispatching system on a 114-mile stretch of track between Columbia, S.C., and Charleston, S.C. The tests, started in 2005, focused on monitoring track switch positions and train locations.
“Everything has worked as anticipated,” said Norfolk Southern spokesman Robin Chapman.
Later this month, the railroad will begin operating freight trains with the system on the route.
Norfolk Southern also has started designing its train control system’s most significant part, which will allow dispatchers to use the data to actually control trains, Chapman said. This phase will allow the system to stop a train if a crew doesn’t follow operating instructions, such as those for speed and following distance. Subsequent testing should be completed by the summer of 2008, he said.
What Norfolk Southern is developing differs from what Burlington Northern had approved: Norfolk Southern’s system could eliminate signal lights while Burlington Northern’s will work with them, the companies said.
Such positive train control systems have been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s list of “Most Wanted” safety improvements since 1990 because of their potential to prevent accidents.
Such an advanced control system might have prevented the Jan. 6, 2005, wreck of two Norfolk Southern trains in Graniteville, S.C., which spilled chlorine gas into the small mill town, killing nine, including the train engineer. A switch set in the wrong position diverted a train passing through the town to a side track, where it collided with a parked locomotive.
A positive train control system would have shown dispatchers and the train crew the position of the switch long before the train arrived.
Norfolk Southern hasn’t estimated the cost for deploying positive train control throughout its 21,200-mile track network in 22 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, Chapman said.
Burlington Northern also hasn’t calculated a cost for rolling out its system, said spokesman Patrick Hiatte. But the railroad industry has estimated that implementing such systems along the main lines of the country’s rail system could cost $4 billion to $6 billion.
The railroads had sought to pay for the high-tech system in part by reducing the size of train crews, from two or three employees to just one, a move that would allow them to cut thousands of jobs.
Railroad labor unions say they back positive train control, but not at the expense of smaller crews that they say would jeopardize train safety. The railroads deny such a move would lessen safety.
But that’s all off the table for now. The United Transportation Union, which represents conductors, won a lawsuit last year preventing the railroads from bargaining over crew size in the ongoing contract negotiations.
“There is no technology available today to replace two sets of eyes in the cabs,” said Frank Wilner, a spokesman for the conductor’s union.