William C. VantuonoChief Editor
PTL (Optimistic Prepare Location) is required to precisely decide the place of the locomotive and the tip of the practice and the placement of the practice at initialization and through operation.
RAILWAY AGE, OCTOBER 2022 ISSUE: Subsequent-generation practice management is on an evolutionary observe.
Subsequent-Technology” or its abbreviation, “next-gen”, is a well-liked phrase that has been used (some say misused) to call issues from tv exhibits (Star Trek, The Subsequent Technology) at conferences (New Technology Freight Rail from Railway Age and Next Generation Train Control, our joint effort with Parsons since 1995). For practice management, it grew to become a sort of basic definition for CBTC (communications-based practice management), PTC (constructive practice management) and varied iterations of each which advanced into an alphabetical soup of acronyms: ATC , ACSES, ASES, ETMS, ERTMS, ETC, ITCS, I-ETMS, VTC, and so on., and so on.
As for the worldwide rail trade and its continually outsourced suppliers and consultants, they took command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard for the “warp velocity” of the decks of the Enterprise D and E vessels –have interaction!– to the core, though typically the warp core spat out, leaving solely impulse energy obtainable.
However “failure is just not an choice” (Apollo 13), and “fail-safe” or “important” is often a should. Thus, there at the moment are a rising variety of next-generation practice management packages for mass transit and mainline freight and passenger operations, with AI (synthetic intelligence) and different “ Area Age” added to spice issues up a bit. There was greater than sufficient to help the annual report The age of the railway/Parsons Gathering.
MTA main the way in which
About 30 years after a then youthful The age of the railway writer whose initials are WCV wrote his first article on MTA New York Metropolis Transit’s new Superior Know-how Alerts program, NYCT – with a short stall throughout a 2007-08 monetary disaster – continues to be forward of the brownfield curve (sounds extra like a garden that hasn’t been watered throughout a drought than a serious tech improve to a “legacy” system). It is honest to say, with three CBTC-equipped traces in service—Canarsie (L), Flushing (7), QBL West (E, F, M, R)—two within the works—Culver (F), Eighth Avenue ( A, C, E) – one other lately assigned – QBL East (E, F, M, R) – and three in provide – Crosstown (G), Fulton (A, C), Sixth Avenue (B, D, F) – NYCT stays the primary main community, globally, to efficiently transition to CBTC. The workload and monetary assets required for thus many facet initiatives are, to say the least, daunting. However they’re doable.
The MTA can thank Tom Prendergast (Railroad age 2017 Railroader of the Yr) for resuscitating and accelerating its CBTC program. Along with his railroad profession rooted in security, he has at all times been an advocate for expertise, particularly throughout his phrases as NYCT Chairman (2009-13) and MTA Chairman (2013-17). After Prendergast retired from the MTA to hitch STV after which AECOM (the place he’s EVP and Americas Transit Market Chief), the “British Invasion” (Andy Byford and Pete Tomlin) took the flag from the CBTC, opening the door to many new applied sciences resembling UWB (ultra-wideband) by way of the “Genius Problem” program. This, and initiatives just like the Transit Technical Laboratoryare the locations the place corporations resembling Piper Networks, 4AI systems, Lamp, Expulsion and Lux mode can display their talents alongside these of long-time gamers Alstom, Siemens, Thales and Hitachi. MTA-related newcomers like Mitsubishi Electric and EJ Electric Transportation Division have joined its rising record of suppliers. On the NGTC convention, the MTA plans to announce a change within the technical method to CBTC procurement.
Piper Networks UWB-based place and velocity expertise system lately acquired security certification from TÜV SÜD. It was the primary to acquire CENELEC Security Integrity Degree 4 (SIL-4) certification in keeping with the next requirements:
• Practical security certification: EN 50126, 50128, 50129 and 50159.
• EMI/EMC certification: EN 50121-1, 50121-3 and 50121-4.
• Environmental certification: EN 50155 and IEC 60068-2.
Piper, TÜV Rheinland, Frauscher, Clear-Vu Lighting, Thales and 4AI sponsored the NGTC convention proceedings on a few of their newest developments. As soon as once more, you needed to be there!
ENG PTL
This is one other acronym so as to add to the practice management dictionary: PTL (Optimistic Prepare Location), an initiative of the Federal Railroad Administration. “The flexibility to precisely find and observe the motion of trains on the rail community is a cornerstone of recent practice management methods,” mentioned Sam Alibrahim, head of the practice management and communications analysis division at The FRA. “The Interoperable Digital Prepare Administration System (I-ETMS) and PTC methods at present utilized by Class I railroads, operational over roughly 54,000 miles of route, depend on GPS to determine the placement of the lead locomotive, the observe data entered by the crew and the place of the swap. . The placement of the rear of the practice is then derived from the placement of the lead locomotive utilizing the size of the practice, often offered by the railroad’s administration data methods (MIS) and confirmed or up to date. day by the locomotive engineer.
“The relative inaccuracy of GPS and guide entry of observe data throughout practice initialization usually results in operational deficiencies. For these causes, the FRA’s Workplace of Analysis, Improvement and Know-how (RD&T) and the railways have cooperatively initiated analysis into revolutionary strategies to precisely find and observe practice actions. This analysis resulted in what’s now often known as the PTL system, which is commercialized by the rail trade and deployed by Class I railroads.”
The PTL analysis was carried out in a number of phases from 2011 to 2017; in section I, FRA RD&T and the railways outlined the next efficiency necessities:
PTL is required to precisely decide the place of the locomotive and the tip of the practice and the placement of the practice at initialization and through operation. Key efficiency necessities embody navigation state estimation for head-of-train (HOT) and end-of-train (EOT) models, help for HOT/EOT communications for trains as much as to 5 miles in size, observe HOT/EOT navigation standing in all environments (with and with out GPS) and help navigation accuracy necessities.
Alibrahim defined how FRA is supporting next-generation rail operations at our convention. As soon as once more, you needed to be there!
“operations are paramount”
The PTC mandate was a really heavy burden – technical, operational and monetary – for the railways. Herzog, by means of its HTI division (Herzog Applied sciences Inc.), is among the many corporations dedicated to easing the burden. “Many railroads nonetheless face important challenges with the prices and complexity related to PTC,” says HTI. The age of the railroad. On this capability, he developed “a complete suite of PTC-related companies and software program options” for freight and commuter railroads referred to as HMOS (Internet hosting, Upkeep and Operational Assist), which “integrates skilled personnel, specialised methods, PTC software program and a extremely obtainable structure”. and centralizes it in a simplified service supply. The service is supported by a 24/7 System Operations Assist Heart staffed by educated and skilled PTC professionals who present devoted, versatile, and operations-focused options. The HMOS Heart is totally interoperable, dependable and safe. Using superior phone methods, a sturdy ticket administration answer, and proactive monitoring software program instruments, the HMOS middle is designed for fast and arranged responses to PTC points.
HMOS at present helps over 215 PTC trains per day, over 6,500 monthly and over 78,000 per 12 months “with expertise starting from assist desk consultant to communications technician to system administrator, to offer Tiered help tiers. The HMOS Heart is designed for fast, organized responses to every part from troubleshooting CAD, PTC and voice and RF methods to environmental hazards and even unruly passengers. Our purpose is to acknowledge issues earlier than they have an effect on operations. The HMOS Heart is designed with the understanding that operations, not varied PTC applied sciences, are paramount. These options can imply the distinction between seconds, minutes or hours of operational impression. »
Unruly passengers? May or not it’s “passenger mood tantrum management”?
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