• Class Is set 2010 capital spending budgets (1/28/2010)

• Assistant Vice President Bridges & Structures
• Rail Senior Safety Consultant w/ Tacoma Rail
• Composite Mechanic/Locomotive Technician

5/3/2016

Herzog Technologies Inc.: PTC Hosting

While the extension of the positive train control (PTC) deadline gives railroads more time to plan and implement the technology, the technical difficulties of PTC remain unchanged.

To assist with the technical difficulties of implementing and maintaining an interoperable PTC system, Herzog Technologies Inc. offers PTC Hosting, which provides a diverse suite of solutions that includes full Interoperable Train Control Messaging (ITCM) functionality, PTC Back Office Server (BOS) functionality, diverse federated MPLS connections and 24/7 support.

The solutions establish long-term partnerships, which allow railroads to offload complicated PTC responsibilities and focus their on day-to-day rail operations, Herzog officials said in a press release.

Herzog PTC Hosting solutions also allow for real-time system monitoring, configuration management and version control on all systems, and an independent test lab for staging and validation.

There are many advantages to hosting solutions over railroads producing standalone PTC back offices, Herzog officials said.

Herzog PTC Hosting back office infrastructure and applications are centrally located and made available to multiple railroad customers. Centralizing both hardware and personnel allows Herzog to work more efficiently and reduce customer costs. Geographically diverse data centers, located in Carrollton, Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz., allow for true geographic redundancy.

Herzog has been working for years to perfect the PTC Hosting service, company officials said. As the first non-railroad to achieve ITCM federation, Herzog is connected to the federated network as a Tier 1 peer under the HTIX SCAC. PTC initialization of a live locomotive has been successfully demonstrated using Herzog PTC Hosting.

A railroad that chooses Herzog PTC Hosting gains PTC interoperability without adding the personnel and infrastructure necessary for ITCM, connecting to the federated network, configuring a BOS or monitoring its system. Customers also enjoy 99.999 percent system availability, disaster recovery, and 24/7 call center support, Herzog officials said.