WASHINGTON — Amtrak, in conjunction with Rockwell Collins, is getting ready to equip 310 diesel locomotives with positive train control technology.
Amtrak and Rockwell crews will start installing PTC equipment on Amtrak-owned GE P42DC locomotives used across the national network. The locomotives will be outfitted with the company’s ARINC RailwayNet service, a PTC-equivalent system that mirrors what is currently in use on the passenger railroad’s Northeast Corridor known as an advanced civil speed enforcement system, or ACSES.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington, D.C., has had PTC active since December 2015, and the technology has been in use between Boston and New Haven, Conn., since 2000.
The safety technology is also in use on 97 miles of Amtrak-owned track in Michigan and Indiana, where it is known as the incremental train control system, or ITCS. In early 2016, Amtrak also activated PTC on a 104-mile section of its Harrisburg line that hosts Keystone service trains, this is also ACSES.
While Amtrak is responsible for equipping its locomotives with PTC-ready technology, host railroads are responsible for track-related PTC work. Most freight railroads in the U.S. will be installing a version of PTC known as I-ETMS, or interoperable electronic train management system.
Once Amtrak and Rockwell Collins equip the railroad’s diesel locomotive fleet, Amtrak locomotives will be in full PTC compliance on 19 different host railroads, including commuter and freight railroads.