Train control, incrementally (May 2006)

— by Pat Foran, Editor

Last fall, the Federal Railroad Administration gave Amtrak the go-ahead to increase train speed from 90 mph to 95 mph in Michigan — the first time in 20 years that revenue passenger trains outside the Northeast Corridor were allowed to operate at such a high speed. That's because for the past six years, Amtrak has been using GE - Transportation's Incremental Train Control System (ITCS) as an overlay to the railroad's existing block signaling system along a 45-mile stretch of its Chicago-to-Detroit corridor.

ITCS provides ongoing communication between train and wayside or station-based control for vital interlocking, switch positioning, crossing activation and health monitoring. The idea: enable more trains to be operated safely at higher speeds, and to achieve greater throughput in signaled track and dark territory.

Today, more than 30 locomotives are ITCS-equipped, with Amtrak running eight daily trains along the corridor and Norfolk Southern Railway, two weekly trains. During the past six years, Amtrak has logged 17,000 train missions and nearly 4 million hours through ITCS control without recording any safety failures, says Jeff Baker, GE's ITCS product manager. And sometime this month, Amtrak plans to petition the FRA to operate Michigan trains at 110 mph.

But on a recent sunny mid-morning, the only milestone on Amtrak Engineer Herman Gibson's mind is Milepost 195 near Niles, Mich. There, Gibson will steer a GE P42-pushed, non-powered control unit into ITCS territory, which runs from Niles to Kalamazoo, Mich.

"Once we're in ITCS mode, everything I need to know will be in this box," says Gibson, fixing his gaze on the track ahead as he points to the ITCS display in the cab's upper right-hand corner.

Visual Aid

Not that Gibson, a third-generation railroader who's been an Amtrak engineer for 18 years, doesn't know this route cold. But he's all for anything that'll help him do his job better — and make it safer, to boot. And Gibson believes ITCS does.

"To me, it's one of the better systems we've got around here," he says. "It's like a co-worker, my other engineer. He can see farther than I can see."

Ten years ago, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDoT) officials were looking pretty far ahead themselves. They wanted high-speed — as in 110 mph — passenger service between Chicago and Detroit. And an FRA rule requires any service above 79 mph to have in-cab signaling and enforcement, Baker says.

Conventional cab signaling would have worked, but at an installation cost of more than $1 million per mile, Baker says. Signaling also would have to have been redistributed to ensure braking distance between signals at up to 110 mph.

Not so with ITCS, which was developed by Harmon Industries Inc., a supplier GE acquired in 2000. The system uses wayside servers and satellites to wirelessly transmit track information to a locomotive's onboard computer, enabling the computer to adjust speed limits based on track conditions. The system also factors in municipal speed limits, temporary speed restrictions and movement authorities, and digitally displays the appropriate speed limit. And if a crossing fails to activate or if there's some other problem, the locomotive is radioed and the train slows down.

"The biggest difference between ITCS and conventional signaling is the train 'knows' where all the signals are, where all the crossings are — and where itself is," Baker says.

Another big difference: The ITCS solution also would cost $800,000 per mile less to implement. So, for the initial $21.7 million test phase, MDoT contributed $9.7 million; FRA, $9.1 million; and Amtrak, $2.9 million. In October 1996, the technology was tested along a 20-mile portion of the line between Dowagiac, Mich., and Niles, but the actual deployment didn't start until 1998. By 2001, ITCS was in full revenue service. In January 2002, speeds were

increased to 90 mph, making the Michigan line the first to gain a passenger-service speed upgrade outside the Northeast Corridor since 1983. In fall 2003, Amtrak, FRA and MDoT officially awarded GE the ITCS contract.

"The thing we didn't realize was how much testing we would go through," Baker says. "We certainly learned things along the way — engineers would say, 'I wish the display looked like this vs. that' or 'I wish the box beeped twice instead of once' — but we never ran into any safety issues. The system has never had a failure that put passengers or the public at risk."

Embraced By Engineers

Which is why Amtrak engineers have embraced it. For example, ITCS won't let an engineer go 2 mph over the speed limit. The speedometer is calibrated every 30 seconds, which helps ensure a more precise train schedule.

"One thing about ITCS is it is so simple," says John Anderson, a road trainmaster who's been with Amtrak for 21 years. "The engineer can monitor train speed, tell the condition of the track — it just helps him do his job a lot better."

"The only thing it doesn't do for me is know when it's time to get coffee," Gibson adds, grinning. "I've been trying to get that software put in."

For now, GE is completing the software validation process to ensure it can support 110 mph speeds. Meanwhile, technology consulting firm Battelle is conducting a safety audit of GE's processes, Baker says. The railroad will be operating 110 mph trains by no later than year's end, Baker believes.

There's still work to be done on the project. ITCS has been installed, but is not yet operational, on 21 additional miles from the Indiana border up to Milepost 195 near Niles. Ultimately, the goal is "to develop a technology that is readily expandable, not only on this route, but for deployment on an existing signal system or in places that are dark," says Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. "It's an easily deployed solution to reduce travel time, and a cost-efficient way to bring up train speeds. All our state partners are watching this."

So, too, are transit-rail officials from around the globe. Delegations from China, Russia and India have taken the ITCS tour.

"The Indian Railway runs 250 trains a day, so you can see why there's interest there," Baker says. "China's the real quantum leap: They've got 1,200 kilometers without signals. That's when the technology starts to become even more cost-effective."

As of 2004, the Michigan ITCS project cost totaled $40 million. "That's not the deployment cost," Baker says. "This wouldn't cost that much to replicate. You'd be talking two months vs. six years."

For Amtrak's Gibson, ITCS has been worth the incremental wait.

"When we first started with ITCS, it was a little difficult, but after you get an opportunity to work it, you start to like it," he says. "In dark territory, systems like this would be perfect."