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Starting in 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) placed Positive
Train Control (PTC) among its "Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements."
At the time, the vast majority of rail lines relied on the human crew for complying
with all safety rules.
PTC refers to technology that is capable of preventing train-to-train collisions,
overspeed derailments, and casualties or injuries to roadway workers.
Railroads have worked to implement their version of PTC on their own tracks. But,
trains travel on one another’s tracks to deliver goods and people from location
to location. Once the trains are off their own tracks, they have to rely on traditional
(and manual) means to communicate information.
When President George W. Bush signed the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 into
law on October 16, 2008, Meteorcomm had already been developing a wireless communication
solution for BNSF for more than a decade.
The communications system Meteorcomm designed for BNSF’s Electronic Train Management
System (ETMS) was the foundation for the PTC communications system that three other
Class 1 railroads have agreed to adopt to meet the 2015 PTC mandate.
Meteorcomm is currently developing the industry standard for radio requirements
and the system software for railroad interoperability. With railroad interoperability,
one train can operate safely under the PTC guidelines not only on its own track
but also any other non-owned track.
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