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Metra: PTC Implementation - by end of 2019?


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#1 CNJRoss

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 06:41 AM

Chicago Tribune, 4/22:
 

Metra to spend $80 million to help launch safety system

 

Metra's board on Wednesday approved two large contracts, including one for $80 million to help implement a high-tech safety system that federal officials said would have prevented two Chicago derailments that killed two people and injured scores of passengers.

 

The other contract, for $707,000, was awarded to a consulting firm that will advise Metra on strategic planning, including evaluating possible new service and stations.
 

The larger contract, awarded to Chicago-based Parsons Transportation Group, is Metra's biggest expenditure yet for installing a federally mandated system known as Positive Train Control, or PTC.

 

Parsons was the sole bidder, a fact that Metra Chairman Martin Oberman acknowledged was "troublesome" because there was no option.

 

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#2 CNJRoss

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Posted 23 April 2015 - 06:06 PM

Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL, 4/22:
 

'Brain' of Metra train crash-prevention system approved for $80 million

 

A crash-prevention system for trains isn't cheap, as an $80 million contract approved by Metra directors Wednesday showed.

 

Metra board directors hired Parsons Transportation Group to develop a "system integrator" that will weave the different components of a complex automatic braking system into one.

 

But that's not the entire cost of Positive Train Control, a safety system mandated by Congress after a 2008 fatal train crash in southern California. With PTC, engineers will be warned of a dangerous situation such as speeding. If preventive action isn't taken, brakes will be applied automatically.

 

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#3 CNJRoss

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Posted 14 May 2015 - 08:51 PM

Chicago Tribune, posted 5/14:
 

Metra years away from implementing high-tech safety system

 

The horrific Amtrak wreck in Philadelphia this week has renewed calls for the nation's commuter rail lines and freight railroads to install a high-tech system that is intended to prevent such accidents by slowing speeding trains and overriding human errors.

 

Metra officials Thursday said they are at least three or four years away from implementing the safety system, known as Positive Train Control, or PTC. The cost is estimated at $300 million to $400 million.

 

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#4 CNJRoss

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 12:11 AM

Chicago Tribune, 1/7/18:

 

Column:  Metra tests high-tech backup braking system, wants full installation by 2019
 

Paul Larsen was acting like a bad Metra engineer.

 

He approached an area where men were working on the tracks without slowing his train. The Positive Train Control or “PTC” monitor — part of a system to prevent crashes — began to flash and sound a warning.

 

But Larsen did not cut his speed. So the PTC system took over, and stopped the train.

 

Larsen, a technical engineer who specializes in PTC, was not operating a real train but an imaginary one in a South Loop test lab, a small, white room packed floor to ceiling with computer and communications equipment. It’s here that Metra is trying out components of what will eventually be a $400 million safety system that it hopes to have installed on all lines by the end of next year.

 

SNIP

 

The U.S. Congress extended the original deadline for railroads to install PTC from 2015 to December 2018, though some railroads can get an extension until 2020 if they meet certain milestones. Metra expects to qualify for the later deadline, Marcheschi said. While the railroad plans to have PTC tested and installed on all lines by the end of 2019, it will ask for a 2020 extension in case of any “road bump,” Marcheschi explained.

 

 



#5 CNJRoss

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Posted 20 March 2018 - 07:46 AM

Related topic:

 

Metra BNSF Line schedule change for PTC (eff. June or July 2018)

#6 CNJRoss

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Posted 25 April 2018 - 01:30 PM

Homewood-Flossmore (IL) Chronicle, 4/22/18:
 

Metra construction to affect Electric Line schedule April 26-29

 

 

Metra's Electric Line schedule will be affected April 26-29 by a construction project.

 

SNIP

 

The project involves switching from a manual to an automated system as required by the Positive Train Control (PTC) safety system.

 

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#7 CNJRoss

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Posted 17 September 2018 - 08:31 PM

Metro Magazine, 9/17/18:
 

Metra marks completion of major PTC milestone

 

Metra celebrated the completion of the installation of positive train control (PTC) components on all its trains and on all its communications and signal systems along its train lines, a major achievement on its way to implementing the federally mandated safety system.
 
Under the PTC legislation, completing the installation of components is one of the four milestones that must be reached by the end of this year in order to receive more time to implement PTC across the entire system. Of the other three milestones, Metra has already acquired the needed radio spectrum and in October it will have completed the training of its workers and started a revenue service demonstration project on one of its lines, the Rock Island Line.

 

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#8 CNJRoss

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Posted 31 October 2018 - 06:06 PM

Metra news release 10/26/18:

 
PTC demonstration has begun on the Rock Island Line

 

 
(October 26, 2018) - Metra has begun what is referred to as Revenue Service Demonstration (RSD) of the new Positive Train Control (PTC) safety system on the Rock Island Line, the final stage before full implementation along the route.  PTC is a federally mandated system that will automatically stop the train if the engineer fails to obey a signal or exceeds the speed limit. This phase involves running some trains in regular service with PTC switched on to demonstrate the system is working as intended. We have designed a new Rock Island schedule with the expectation that the demonstration will succeed and we can fully implement PTC on the line in January. (We want your feedback on that proposed schedule. For details, click here.)

 

We do not anticipate any major delays due to PTC while it is being demonstrated and after it is fully implemented. But because PTC is an incredibly complex system that involves numerous components on the train, along the tracks and in the back office that must constantly communicate with each other, and because it is a new system for our engineers and maintainers to learn, it would be unrealistic to promise that there will not be minor glitches and minor delays, particularly in the early days of implementation.

 

We ask for your patience and understanding as we bring this important new safety upgrade to the line.

 

 

 



#9 CNJRoss

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Posted 31 October 2018 - 06:11 PM

Progressive Railroading 10/31/18:

 

Metra starts PTC service demos on Rock Island line

 

 

Metra recently launched revenue service demonstrations (RSDs) of its positive train control (PTC) system on the Rock Island District Line, which runs southwest from Chicago to Joliet, Illinois.

The RSDs are the final stage before PTC is fully implemented along the route. The demonstrations involve operating some trains in regular service with PTC engaged to determine if the system is working as intended.

Metra has developed a new Rock Island District Line schedule with the expectation that the RSDs will prove successful and PTC can be fully installed on the line in January 2019, agency officials said in a press release.

 

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#10 CNJRoss

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Posted 15 November 2018 - 01:11 PM

WMAQ-TV Chicago, IL 11/14/18:
 

Metra Says it Will Meet Federal Deadline For Safety System--But Other Improvements Will Be Delayed to Pay for It

 

 

Chicago’s Metra commuter rail agency says it is on track to meet a crucial December federal deadline for implementation of the safety system known as positive train control (PTC). But it’s an expensive proposition, which is forcing deferral of other costly system improvements.

 

PTC is a high tech, GPS-based system, designed to provide electronic communication between trains---with a goal of preventing any two trains from being in the same spot on earth at the same time. The PTC system is designed to automatically stop any train which ignores switches, signals, or speed limits, hopefully preventing potentially catastrophic collisions.

 

Metra Executive Director James Derwinski says that last month, the agency met all of its crucial milestones, regarding installation of equipment, radio spectrum, and training.

 

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