For Norfolk Southern, A new dispatch system - contact with GE Harris Railway Electronics for the new unified train control system - Rail Update - Brief Article

Railway Age, Jan, 1998

GE Harris Railway Electronics will be supplying the dispatching portion for Norfolk Southern's new Unified Train Control System (UTCS). It win use what GE Harris calls "distributed computing concepts" to centralize NS's existing, geographically separated dispatching centers, and will connect nine divisional centers and two centralized hubs for system administration and supervision of train dispatching. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The UTCS dispatch system, says GE Harris, "is designed to improve coordination between the various NS dispatching territories and allow train clearances, trackage rights, and traffic control to function among multiple dispatching centers."

The open design of the UTCS dispatch system, says GE Harris, "is configured to easily accommodate the expansion of the NS system. A revolutionary `movement planning' capability will also enhance the dispatchers' ability to improve the flow of traffic over the entire network. Considerable system capability redundancy is to be employed to minimize downtime in the event of an outage, aid disaster recovery, and maximize `up-time.'"