CN dispatch system is a first for Siemens - Rail Update - Canadian National Railway, Siemens Transportation Systems - Brief Article

Railway Age, July, 2002

Siemens Transportation Systems, Inc., has been awarded a contract to develop and install a new rail traffic control (RTC) system by Canadian National for the railroad's three Canadian dispatching centers.

For Siemens, whose primary business in North America is the rail transit industry, light rail vehicles in particular, it is the company's first-ever contract in North America for a freight rail dispatching system. CN and Siemens said they will jointly develop and implement the technology, each assigning design and rail operation specialists to the project.

The new RTC system will employ modified Siemens VICOS[TM] and SINAUT Spectrum[TM] computer operating systems, which have been deployed in Europe and are also being installed on NYC Transit, Houston's new light rail system, and Puerto Rico's Tren Urbano. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The new system, to be installed at 46 traffic control workstations at CN rail traffic control centers in Montreal, Toronto, and Edmonton, will tie directly into CN's SRS (Service Reliability Strategy) computerized train scheduling and planning system. "Modern hardware displays and monitors, along with newer, simplified operating procedures, will greatly improve the train dispatcher's working environment," says CN. "The system will have built-in contingency capabilities to permit instantaneous resumption of network dispatching at alternate sites if necessary. It will give us even greater scheduling reliability to control with precision the more than 300 trains CN operates daily across 12,000 miles of track in Canada."

Development of CN's new RTC system is expected to be completed in early 2004, with installation finished in late 2005. Last year, CN completed upgrading of Illinois Central's Homewood, Ill., dispatching center, installing Digital Concept's Digital Traffic Control technology. The next piece of the CN dispatching system to be upgraded will be the former Wisconsin Central territories.