[IMAGE]TRAX.jpg[/IMAGE]The train collision in Chatsworth, Calif., in September 2008 brought nationwide attention to the issue of rail safety, with operator distraction and train control of a particular focus. In that accident, a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on. In part motivated by that accident and others in recent years, Congress initiated a push to improve rail safety, setting a deadline for all rail lines in the ­country to be equipped with ­positive train control (PTC) systems.

The FRA began reporting to Congress on PTC in 1993, says Mark Hartong, electronics engineer at the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) Office of Safety Assurance and Compliance. "In 1997, we began working on a rule for voluntary implementation and that rule came into effect in 2005. It's been of great interest to the railroads and the agency as something that needed to be done, and the unfortunate accident in Chatsworth was sort of the final motivator to make it from a voluntary implementation schedule to a statutory mandate," he says.

PTC poses challenges

PTC comprises the most pressing rail safety issue, due to the 2015 deadline.

Steve McEligott, rail systems engineering manager at infrastructure construction consulting firm HNTB, says that although the PTC requirement will pose high expense and personnel concerns for rail, it is a step the industry needs to take toward improving rail safety.

"The more you can take the need to have a train engineer react to a signal coming to him in the train, the more you can remove that physical interface between a person and the locomotive, the safer you're going to be," he explains. "The PTC systems that are going to be installed are vital systems, so they're redundant, they're failsafe - I think it's the way the industry needs to go."

PTC differs from automatic train control systems in that it is a ­predictive technology, McEligott says. "It minimizes the risk of accidents and over-speed derailments occurring and protects railway workers," he says.

Today, there are two PTC systems that will be grandfathered in to meet the FRA rule. The first, Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES), is used predominantly in the Northeast corridor, McEligott says. "It's what Amtrak currently uses and it's certified up to 150 miles per hour," he adds.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Long Island Rail Road plan to install ACSES on their systems, McEligott says. "NJ Transit has a variant to that called Advanced Speed Enforcement System (ASES)."

The second type, Electronic Train Management System (ETMS), is used mostly by freight carriers in the western part of the country, such as Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), and is regulated for speeds up to 70 miles per hour, McEligott says.

"The commuter rail agencies that operate along freight tracks are going to have to develop some sort of system that can communicate to the freight system that's already installed," McEligott says. "That's where the industry is now, defining what the interoperability issue is, making it so that trains of one system can travel on track where another system is installed and everyone can still communicate and provide the level of safety that is required by the regulation."

The cost of acquiring and installing PTC poses quite a challenge to rail systems. "The costs that we've seen are anything from $50,000 per track mile for one of the basic systems that's already in place, to up to $140,000 per track mile for a newly developed system," McEligott says. On top of that, it costs about $45,000 to equip each locomotive, he adds. In some cases, he says, the cost of the equipment is actually more than the cost of the locomotive itself.

The FRA has made $50 million per year through 2013 available to freight and passenger railroads for PTC systems. "But, that doesn't go very far at all when you look at the size of the overall program," McEligott says. Thus, rail agencies will in most cases have to come up with their own funding mechanisms.

An additional pressure is the challenge of hiring personnel to install the PTC systems. "SEPTA, for instance, I think they figured out that if they installed the PTC equipment on four locomotives per day that they might have it ready by 2015. They just don't have the shop capacity or the manpower to be able to do the installation," McEligott says. However, the need for additional staff levels is a short-term concern, as regular operations staff can maintain and operate the PTC systems in conjunction with their normal duties.

"I believe since Amtrak installed ACSES along their corridor, they haven't needed to retain additional employees over and above what they had when they were during the installation ­process," McEligott says.

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Utah accident tests light rail

In addition to PTC, train car and rail design and engineering contribute to accident avoidance, reducing damage to equipment and injury to passengers. Local news outlets reported on a March 12 crash involving a Utah Transit Authority (UTA) TRAX light rail train and a vehicle that drove around lowered crossing arms to cross an intersection in downtown Salt Lake City. Two of the car's four passengers were killed and the other two were critically injured in the accident.

The train was traveling between 45 miles per hour and 55 miles per hour, and the crossing arms had been lowered for about 30 seconds, UTA spokesperson Gerry Carpenter says. "It's still unclear why the driver chose to go around the crossing arms, but we were able to confirm that the decision was made after the vehicle had come to a stop to go around the crossing arms. There was no damage to the crossing arms, so they completely cleared it before the automobile was struck by the TRAX train," he says. "There was little to no warning to the train operator. He immediately went into emergency braking, but by the time the train came to a stop, it had traveled about 300 feet down the track, pushing the car."

UTA officials credit railcar and track safety design features in the absence of train passenger or operator injuries. "We take every step we can to minimize or mitigate any kind of derailment. On our system, as probably most light rail systems, it really starts from the design of the track itself," says Todd Provost, UTA systems engineer.

The rail is designed to mesh with the train's wheels to keep the car in the center of the track at a certain equilibrium, he explains. In addition, the train car bodies are designed according to California Public Utilities Commission requirements and can accommodate a force of up to two g without permanent deformation of the car body. Siemens is the agency's light rail vehicle provider, Provost says. Crumple zones help dissipate and eliminate the energy of an impact in case of a collision, he adds. "It's a high probability you'll have a collision when you're running with grade crossings and through downtown streets as we do," Provost says.

The agency's commuter rail line, in service since 2008, is already equipped with PTC that meets the FRA requirements. At press time, UTA was finalizing its PTC implementation plan for the rest of the system due to the FRA on April 16.

FRA's safety initiatives

The FRA established a branch overseeing PTC under its Signal and Train Control Division, consisting of a supervisor and field agents covering each of the FRA's regions. Three field agents have been hired so far, and the agency is in the process of hiring for the remaining seven positions, Mark Hartong says.

The PTC branch will provide test oversight for railroads as they bring their PTC systems online, he says. FRA will also be reviewing PTC implementation plans and notifying railroads of approval within 90 days. "The purpose of the plan is so that FRA understands what's happening because Congress is very interested in what's happening. In fact, the requirement for the plan is statutory, as opposed to regulatory - it's a matter of law, not just of regulation," Hartong says.

To apply for FRA funding to aid in the cost of installing PTC, railroads should visit the Federal Register to read the formal Notice of Funds Availability, and then go to grants.gov to apply.

Although agencies have expressed concern about struggling to fund and install PTC systems to meet the deadline, Hartong is optimistic. "Right now, I think it's too early to say that the railroads won't be able to make it. It's a very aggressive schedule that will be required, but [the deadline] is more than five years out," he says.

Hartong acknowledges the interoperability issues that arise when freight and passenger railroads install PTC systems. ACSES, which is largely used by passenger rail, is transponder-based, Hartong says, and ETMS, the freight choice, is GPS-based. "Conceptually, [making the systems interoperable] is fairly easy; technically, there's a fair amount of work that needs to be done for that to happen," he says. He says Amtrak is currently working with BNSF to qualify the freight's ETMS system for higher speeds.

Because of the statutory mandate for installation, PTC has largely been the focus of the Office of Safety, Hartong says; however other safety technologies are always being investigated. "Our Research and Development group is working on advanced technologies for things like highway grade crossings, broken rail protection, passenger crashworthiness, worker protection, tank car integrity and track integrity. We're also working to develop a railway risk reduction effort, which looks at determining fundamental causes of accidents," he says.

The safety record for railroads has stabilized, Hartong says, because the industry has been able to address the "low-hanging fruit" in regard to accidents. "What we're looking at is precursors. For example, the engineer may have fallen asleep. What things in the process of how railroad operations are conducted contributed to that, and if we address those, can we prevent the immediate cause of an accident - the engineer falling asleep - from ­happening?"

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Metrolink safety overhaul

Before the Chatsworth crash, a January 2005 accident in Glendale, Calif., was Metrolink's deadliest to date, with 11 fatalities. A Metrolink train collided with an SUV parked on the tracks, then jackknifed and derailed, hitting another Metrolink train moving in the opposite direction.

After the Glendale accident, Metrolink started investigating new train car designs to help protect passengers in a collision. This March, the agency took delivery of the first of 117 new Hyundai Rotem train cars designed with crash energy management technology. "They are engineered to spread the energy from a collision throughout the entire car so that the structural integrity of the car holds up," says Richard Katz, Metrolink board of directors vice chair. Crash energy management also helps to limit the number and severity of injuries, he adds. The new cars are being assembled and tested before being put into service this ­summer.

Board Chair Keith Millhouse told members of the press in March that the new train cars are essential to the rail system's safety overhaul. Other changes that have been made include a new contract with Amtrak that takes effect this summer and calls for more testing of engineers and allows Metrolink officials to go into cabs unannounced to monitor operations.

The agency is also adding automatic train control devices along rail lines. "It's an older technology, but a technology that can go on the track today," Katz says. Metrolink has added devices at 50 locations, bringing the total to more than 150 on the system.

Metrolink also installed inward-facing cameras in train cabs. "Even though we're getting sued by the union that represents the engineers, we feel it is an incredibly important safety tool because it allows us to monitor what's going on in the cab," he says.

Katz reports that in the first year of operation on the Orange Line, which runs from downtown Los Angeles south through the length of Orange County, there were 60 accidents and, in all but one case, footage captured by the cameras cleared the operator of any responsibility.

Metrolink has committed to installing PTC on all its lines by 2012 and is working with the freight railroads the agency shares track with to meet the same early deadline. "We have a mantra at Metrolink," Katz says. "'No longer will we be a part of the pack when it comes to safety, but to lead the country in the safest passenger rail system in the U.S.' - that's our goal."

In terms of funding, Katz says Metrolink will be applying for an FRA grant and has been working with Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein to channel additional funds to the agency's PTC implementation efforts. Out of the $205 million budgeted for the installation, Katz says the agency has accrued $100 million so far. "But, this will not be held up for lack of funds," he says.

 

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