DCTA is fed-approved to demo PTC in revenue service

Texas’ Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA) is moving closer to having its positive train control (PTC) technology certified and implemented on its 21-mile A-train commuter rail line. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently approved DCTA’s Revenue Service Demonstration (RSD) application, and the agency has now moved to the RSD PTC phase, which entails operating revenue (regularly-scheduled) trains with PTC technology.

The agency is the first in Texas to have RSD on its rail line and is currently operating select train runs in RSD.

“PTC is a significant safety upgrade to our system, and we will continue to prioritize this project to ensure our A-train has the highest level of safety technology,” said DCTA CEO Raymond Suarez.

DCTA has identified temporary A-train service modifications to maintain its progress on PTC testing and full implementation. On Friday, the agency began running its two Friday evening schedules and first Saturday morning schedule as “out of service” PTC RSD testing trains.

The suspended RSD trains will continue up until DCTA’s next service change, in which all agency trains will be in RSD. The agency encourages riders who typically utilize these specific A-train schedules to make plans to board an alternate train.

DCTA was the first public transit agency in Texas to begin testing on PTC and ranks in the top third of public transit agencies in the U.S. for PTC implementation progress. As of Dec. 31, 2018, DCTA has met the federally-mandated deadline to be in RSD for consideration of its alternate schedule request. The agency expects the FRA to certify its PTC technology by June 2020.