User:TroyMH/sandbox

(NJT)

Norfolk Southern Railway began work on the system in 2008 with Wabtec Railway electronics to start developing a plan implement Positive Train Control on NS rails. NS has already implemented PTC on 6,310 miles of track with plans to achieve it on 8,000 miles of track. NS has requested an extension on the time to have PTC active on its miles of track. Due to the need to work more on areas with no track singles or dar areas. Also to have the smaller railroads that the company does business with to be PTC capable.NS keeps experiencing issues with the system and wants to take the proper time to fix the system to ensure the safety of its employees and all others using their tracks. NS has been adding and updating its locomotives with PTC capable computers to allow those locomotives for use on mainlines. 2,900 locomotives out of the almost 4,000 the company has have been fitted with the PTC capable computers. NS plans to put at least 500 locomotives into storage using precision NS has been updating it trackside equipment such as radio towers and control point lighting to assist in PTC operations on the railroad. With the new computers on the locomotives it allows the locomotives to interact with each other and trackside systems. Norfolk Southern's General Electric Transportation locomotives are equipped with GPS to aid in the use of PTC. All of NS's locomotives are equipped with Energy Management a computer system that provides real time data on the locomotive. The system can also control train speed and brake systems on board. The EM system allows the locatives to use less fuel and be more efficent. NS's final goal is completely autonomous operations of their trains. This system will be used along side Auto-router used to route train movements with little to no human interactions. With these two systems integrated with PTC it allows for more precise movement and train control across the railroad. NS, Union Pacific, CSXT, BNSF, and Virginia Railway Express have been testing interoperation to make sure each companies PTC systems work with each other to ensure safe railroad travel. For this a NS train on CSXT tracks has to act like a CSXT train would or vice-versa. That requires the railroads to use the same communications and radio frequencies for everything to operate smoothly. Nearly 3,000 locomotives have been fitted with the PTC capable computers.