Union Pacific (UP) has updated information on its implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), stating that it is continuing its efforts to install the technology on its network. Through September 1, 2016, the railroad has equipped more than 3,200 locomotives, installed 4,600 computers and invested more than $2.1 billion on integrating the technology.
UP has reported that the current estimate for PTC’s total cost is about $2.9 billion. The railroad has installed 88 percent, or 15,271 miles, of total route miles with PTC signal hardware and has partially installed PTC hardware on approximately 83 percent of its 5,656 locomotives earmarked for the technology.
The company has equipped 2,016 locomotives with PTC hardware and software for revenue service demonstration, which is a test of the PTC system in a defined rail corridor. UP has also installed 84 percent of the wayside antennas needed to support PTC along the company’s right of way. The railroad reported that it has 40 PTC trains per day operating in the L.A. Basin and central California.
UP freight trains with PTC-equipped locomotives and PTC-trained crews, classified as “revenue service demonstration” or RSD, began operating in California in late 2015 to test for operational safety compliance. Around 40 of these trains are operating daily in southern California’s Los Angeles Basin.
This RSD service allows UP to continuously refine its implementation of this technology and gather the following feedback:
- verifying and enhancing track feature databases;
- improving educational tools for train crews;
- standardizing engineering and dispatching processes; and
- continuing to assess locomotive reliability.
UP’s PTC system consists of multiple technologies functioning together to monitor and manage train movements, which involves integration of signal and telecom elements, GPS, wayside, base station and locomotive radios, and antennas and satellites.