Wireless and railroads: a fresh look

Railway Age, May, 2008 by Ron Lindsey

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It has been a decade since representatives of the Class I's discussed wireless technologies for railroad operations. The results provided a then-definitive understanding of the railroads' requirements for wireless that subsequently supported the AAR's justification for RF spectrum in front of the FCC. However, the world of wireless and its usefulness in the railroads has changed substantially since then. In addition to the major changes in IT and the supply of wireless data technologies, both private and commercial, the current and envisioned opportunities for advanced functionality have progressed far beyond the decade-old study's findings. As to opportunities, F- PTC, domestic security, intermodal supremacy, and the advancement of proactive traffic management were not considered. Additionally, both FRA and FCC regulations have added o to the opportunity and complexity of deploying wireless data. For these reasons, the FRA contracted with Communication Architecture to conduct a study, "An Analysis of the Opportunity for Wireless Technologies in Passenger and Freight Rail Operations," to take a fresh look.

The four-month analysis began with interviews with key business process managers across Amtrak and most of the Class I's to glean their demand perspectives as to how wireless data could advance resource management, including the deployment of planning and execution tools and the interchange of trains between railroads. Sessions were then held with railroad technical staff and suppliers to gain their perspectives of what could be delivered to the market. Bringing these perspectives together revealed opportunities and challenges to advancing rail operations via wireless data.

With the expansion of commercial and private wireless data technologies in the past 10 years, the railroads are now caught up in a data and management tool Catch-22. They haven't had the availability of timely status data for their trains and other assets afforded by wireless data technology., and therefore have not been able to deploy management tools like meet/pass planners that could optimize the utilization of such resources as track time, locomotives, crews, yards, fuel, and m/w forces. And, since most railroads don't have the tools and processes that could use timely data, they haven't made the business case to invest in available wireless and related technologies.

The good news is that obtaining the revolutionary resource management opportunities identified in the FRA study does not require revolutionary changes in communication and IT infrastructures. Instead, as presented in the study's report (to be posted on the FRA website), the railroads can deploy relatively simple communication and management platforms that complement current systems and that do not compete with the industry-based ICBS program (p. 39) to provide an interoperable locomotive platform and wireless data infrastructure. Additionally, the railroads can expand beyond the boundaries of interoperability to include industry intraoperability. With such a shift, the focus moves from the seamless interchange of trains without the loss of functionality, such as PTC, to permit the ability to track mobile assets regardless of the railroad over which they are operating. Such a capability will permit substantial business benefits including effective fuel management, improved locomotive maintenance and management, and improved traffic management relative to interchange operations. There are some considerations, however.

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First, obtaining revolutionary functionality via evolutionary deployment of commercial and private communication technologies and management platforms means having a business case and management mindset that permits interim systems and technologies to be discarded when new possibilities offer increased value. Railroads normally are not very open to discarding installed infrastructure short of its deemed useful life.

Second, for both interoperability and intraoperability, the railroads will benefit substantially by having an industry-based locomotive tracking system that provides the means for each railroad to manage its primary resources even if it is using foreign railroad locomotives or their own locomotives running over foreign roads.

All this will require a new discipline in the industry: technologists that can build the business cases to promote enterprise and industry perspectives of the evolutionary deployment of wireless technologies across departmental and railroad boundaries.

Nine projects to watch

1. ACSES (Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System, Alstom), Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Boston and New Haven and high speed territory south of New York City. ACSES provides vital PTC functionality in support of operations up to 150 mph.

2. CAS (Collision Avoidance System, US&S), Alaska Railroad. CAS, scheduled for completion in 2009, is a vital system designed to enforcing movement authorities and speed restrictions in a combination of Direct Traffic Control (DTC) unsignaled and signaled territory.