(The following article by Christopher Dinsmore was posted on the Virginian-Pilot website on September 22.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk Southern Corp. is developing a computerized train control system designed to improve efficiency and safety, it said Wednesday.
The Norfolk-based railroad has begun implementing the first phase of what it is calling “Optimized Train Control” on its line in South Carolina between Charleston and Columbia. Roll-out to other lines on its system will follow over the next 18 to 24 months, said Robin Chapman, a Norfolk Southern spokesman.
The system will help control train speeds and braking and keep train crews informed about track conditions. Currently, train speed and braking are controlled by the train crew. Track conditions are communicated by a signal light system and radio.
“This is a key step in our commitment to use advanced technology in all aspects of operations,” said Charles W. “Wick” Moorman IV, Norfolk Southern’s president. Optimized Train Control “will help provide a safer environment for employees and communities and better handling for customer shipments.”
Optimized Train Control will combine data communications, positioning systems and on-board computers tied to the train’s braking systems. The system will automatically enforce speed and operating limits to prevent collisions and other train accidents.
Such digital train control systems hold out the promise of preventing accidents such as a Norfolk Southern wreck in Graniteville, S.C. , in January. The system might be able to notify a train’s crew that a switch has been improperly set to divert traffic onto a siding, prompting the train to stop. Instead the train hit the Graniteville switch at normal speed and derailed, spilling chlorine gas that killed nine and injured many others.
Besides improving safety, the new system is expected to increase the efficient operation of the railroad.
Chapman would not say how much the railroad planned to spend on it.
The system is similar to “positive train control,” which the National Transportation Safety Board supports as a “most wanted” initiative for transportation safety. The railroad industry has estimated that implementing positive train control along the main lines of the nation’s railroad system could cost $4 billion to $6 billion.
Norfolk Southern is the nation’s fourth-largest railroad, with a 21,300-mile system spread across 22 Eastern states plus the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada.
The railroad is working with Lockheed Martin’s Rail and Gravity Programs group, which has the lead role in the Federal Railroad Administration’s train control initiative, and General Electric’s Rail Business group.
The technologies going into the system have been in development for at least a decade.