Texas university opens rail safety research center

The University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA) held a ceremony on Monday to mark the opening of its new Transportation Center for Railway Safety.

UPTA is the center's lead institution and established the facility through a joint venture with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Texas A&M University. The center will be used to conduct research on ways to advance the performance and safety of railroad equipment and components.

"The railway vehicles and technologies of the future are going to need men and women who are prepared to plan, design and manage transportation systems for the 21st century. This rail safety program is going to turn applied research into that equipment and system failures into tangible solutions that save lives and minimize economic losses," said Gregory Winfree, the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) assistant secretary for research and technology, in a press release.

The center's creation stemmed from research UTPA has been conducting for the rail industry for about a decade, starting with a $15,000 grant from Amsted Rail to test rail bearings and sensors, and determine how to make them safer and more reliable, UPTA officials said.

"The UTPA center also works to improve signals and highway crossings for greater safety … and [its] infrastructure group works on improving the actual rails that give the industry its name," said Winfree in a blog posted on the USDOT's website. "From track to train to system operations, the UTPA rail safety program promises a safer future for American rail."