Metro-North completes signal upgrades at curves, bridges

MTA Metro-North Railroad has completed permanent changes to its signal system to ensure automatic speed enforcement at five critical curves and five moveable bridges in New York and Connecticut, the railroad announced yesterday.

With the completion of work at the Devon Bridge in Stratford, Conn., late last week, all signal modifications ordered by the Federal Railroad Administration in December have been completed well before the FRA's Sept. 1 deadline, Metro-North officials said in a press release.

The FRA ordered the work after a December 2013 accident in which a Metro-North train derailed on a curve near the Bronx, N.Y., resulting in four passenger fatalities.

"The complete implementation of the requirements of the FRA's Emergency Order 29, issued on Dec. 8, 2013, brings us another step closer to a safer railroad, which is our No. 1 goal," said Metro-North President Joseph Giulietti.

Signal engineers first designed modifications to the circuitry at each location by calculating where and when speed limits should be reduced. Then, signal maintainers had to reconfigure wiring along the tracks that sends the signal to the train to control its speed. Extensive testing was performed to confirm the changes were working as designed, according to the agency.

The signal display observed by train engineers in their cabs now will automatically indicate reduced allowable speeds on the approaches to these 10 locations. If the engineer does not reduce the train's speed accordingly, the train will automatically come to a stop.

Metro-North signal forces began work on changes to the Automatic Train Control system at Spuyten Duyvil just days after the fatal derailment and completed the modifications there on the same day the FRA order was issued.

Signal system modifications for the remaining four curves at Yonkers, White Plains, Bridgeport and Port Chester were all completed by Feb. 8, ahead of the FRA March 1, target.

Work then shifted to the five moveable bridges on the New Haven Line at Cos Cob, South Norwalk, Westport, Bridgeport and Milford in Connecticut.  The "Peck" Bridge in Bridgeport was completed first on January 18, 2014 and the fifth and final bridge at Devon was completed March 20.