Intelligent Rail Systems (IRS)

Positive Train Control (PTC)

Positive Train Control (PTC) systems are integrated command, control, communications, and information systems for controlling train movements with safety, security, precision, and efficiency. PTC systems will improve railroad safety by significantly reducing the probability of collisions between trains, casualties to roadway workers and damage to their equipment, and over speed accidents. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has named PTC as one of its "most-wanted" initiatives for national transportation safety. PTC systems are comprised of digital data link communications networks, continuous and accurate positioning systems such as NDGPS, on-board computers with digitized maps on locomotives and maintenance-of-way equipment, in-cab displays, throttle-brake interfaces on locomotives, wayside interface units at switches and wayside detectors, and control center computers and displays.

PTC systems may also interface with tactical and strategic traffic planners, work order reporting systems, and locomotive health reporting systems. PTC systems issue movement authorities to train and maintenance-of-way crews, track the location of the trains and maintenance-of-way vehicles, have the ability to automatically enforce movement authorities, and continually update operating data systems with information on the location of trains, locomotives, cars, and crews. The remote intervention capability of PTC will permit the control center to stop a train should the locomotive crew be incapacitated. In addition to providing a greater level of safety and security, PTC systems also enable a railroad to run scheduled operations and provide improved running time, greater running time reliability, higher asset utilization, and greater track capacity. They will assist railroads in measuring and managing costs and in improving energy efficiency. Pilot versions of PTC were successfully tested a decade ago, but the systems were never deployed on a wide scale. Other demonstration projects are currently in the planning and testing stages. Deployment of PTC on railroads is expected to begin in earnest later this decade.

North American Joint PTC (NAJPTC)

On January 23, 1998, FRA joined with the Association of American Railroads (AAR) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to begin development of a high-speed positive train control (PTC) project for the St. Louis-Chicago corridor. Industry efforts toward PTC have now been integrated into the North American Joint PTC (NAJPTC) Program. This project is the venue for the industry's development of standards for PTC interoperability (i.e., the ability of a train to move from one railroad or from one type of train control system onto another at track speed while under continuous supervision of the train control systems). AAR, IDOT, and the FRA Next Generation High Speed Rail Program (NGHSR) are sharing the project costs.

Transportation Technology Center Inc (TTCI), a subsidiary of AAR, was contracted as the Program Office to develop the specifications and Request for Proposal (RFP) with Aeronautical Radio Inc (ARINC) as the System Engineer, and to manage this project for the NAJPTC Program. The program awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Corporation in June 2000 to be the System Developer/Integrator for the development of a PTC system on the St. Louis-Chicago corridor to the specification.

As of March 2005, several field trials have been conducted on the St. Louis-Chicago corridor for testing and debugging. Revenue service will commence upon successful formal factory acceptance test and field test after the system is fully debugged. A Product Safety Plan, in compliance with the newly adopted Subpart H of 49 CFR 236, will be prepared to be submitted to the FRA Office of Safety.