Posts Tagged: "positive train control"

This week in Capitol Hill hearings focuses solely on meetings happening at the U.S. Senate. The one hearing scheduled at the U.S. House of Representatives, which was to explore whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was addressing small business concerns regarding 21st century telecom systems, has been postponed to a later date. In the Senate, the Commerce Committee will hold hearings on automated system for rail vehicles and challenges in the creation of rural infrastructure for broadband Internet. The Indian Affairs Committee is also exploring broadband challenges and the Superfund Subcommittee will discuss the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) implementation of science transparency rules.

This week in Capitol Hill hearings, automated systems for providing railroad safety control, innovative Medicare initiatives and the Army Futures Command are discussed in the House of Representatives while the Senate explores advances in nuclear fuel technologies and emerging modes of transportation.

Positive train control, or PTC, seeks to create a complex infrastructure network for railroad lines which enable the real-time sharing of information between trains, rail wayside devices and software programs referred to as “back office” applications. The communication system tracks a train’s position and movement and determines any speed restrictions as well as the state of signal and switch devices along a railway. If a railway vehicle is speeding or a risk of a collision develops, the PTC system takes control of the train away from a human operator to reduce the speed or take other actions to prevent a collision.