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2/19/2020
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday gave New Jersey Transit the green light to begin revenue service demonstration of its positive train control (PTC) system on the Morristown commuter-rail line between Summit and Denville, New Jersey.
The FRA's approval means NJ Transit is a step closer to meeting the federally mandated deadline of PTC certification by Dec. 31, NJ Transit officials said in a press release.
NJ Transit continues to conduct non-revenue testing on its other rail lines and is working with Amtrak and freight railroads to ensure interoperability of all PTC systems, agency officials said.
Meanwhile, PTC implementation has prompted Metra to propose schedule changes to the Electric Line between downtown Chicago and southern suburbs.
The current commuter-rail schedule requires Metra crews to “flip” trains in under 10 minutes, or turn around trains at Millennium Station in Chicago so that they can run more inbound trips during the morning rush period, Metra officials said in a press release.
This process requires Metra train engineers to move to the opposite end of the train, crews to clear the train of riders, a brake test to be performed, and a job briefing to be conducted. With PTC enabled, the engineer also must initialize the system before each trip. This multi-step task requires more time to complete a flip, officials said.
To accommodate the task, Metra must reduce the number of trains on the line and require trains to make more stops. Metra also proposed adding a midday outbound express train, implementing cross-platform transfers for Blue Island branch riders and adjusting off-peak train departures.
Metra is seeking rider feedback on the schedule changes online until March 1. The agency may revise the proposal based on the feedback, officials said.
The new schedule will be published later in the spring.