(The following story by Paul Meincke was posted on Chicago television station ABC 7’s website on February 21.)
CHICAGO — Metra’s new satellite-based system monitors everything from signals to train speed in an effort to reduce human error.
The high-tech system, called Electronic Train Management System (ETMS), has been in the works for several years. There have been glitches, but the Federal Railroad Administration has given it a green light and called it a “new era of rail safety.”
Thanks to global positioning satellites, a train headed for trouble will have its brakes applied from outer space. Officials said it could help in the event of another accident like one a year-and-a-half ago when two people died in a train derailment on Metra’s Rock Island line. The train was traveling 70 mph at a crossover when it should have been going 10 mph. Federal investigators concluded that the engineer missed a signal, but they also faulted Metra for failing to have a system to override human error.
Metra is now preparing to move forward with ETMS, a new system rail experts consider a “safety net.” The satellite-based system monitors signals, switches, train speed, among a host of things through an on board computer. If an engineer, for instance, is going too fast, or misses a signal, ETMS steps in.
“The satellite will trigger a mechanism inside the locomotive that will first slow the locomotive down, and then in fact stop the locomotive prior to reaching that signal,” said Phil Pagano, Metra Executive Director.
The Burlington Northern Santa Fe has been testing ETMS on a freight line in central Illinois for the last several years, and last month it won approval to begin installing it on freight lines in 17 states.
For decades, railroads have had electronic track based systems that automatically stop locomotives if a signal is blown, but it doesn’t exist everywhere. It’s not on Metra’s Rock Island line and other parts of the Metra system.
So Metra – in the next year – will begin a pilot project using ETMS on the Rock Island. If it succeeds, other Metra lines would have it within a decade.
“I think were all flabbergasted today at the technology and where we’re going, and I think that’s the other element to ETMS. It doesn’t stop here,” said Pagano.
If brakes can be implied from outer space, rail experts believe it could broaden the safety net by putting GPS trackers on other vehicles. For example, if the system was on a school bus or tank truck, an approaching locomotive could be alerted as it approached a crossing.
Train officials warn that many accidents are the result of motorists driving around downed crossing gates, a sight engineers see on a daily basis. While accidents will still happen, Metra officials said ETMS will significantly lessen the chances of impact.
Putting ETMS in place on the 200 or so miles of the Metra system track that does not have an automatic stopping system will cost roughly $100-million.