PTC: A merger of technology and human ingenuity at NS and across the industry

Norfolk Southern is on track with its PTC Implementation Plan to meet the 2018 and 2020 goals. PTC, or Positive Train Control, is technology designed to prevent train-to-train collisions, derailments caused by excessive speed, unauthorized incursions by trains into sections of track where repairs are being made, and movements of a train through an improperly aligned track switch.

The U.S. Congress has required that railroads install PTC on tracks that carry passenger trains or toxic-by-inhalation materials. NS is implementing PTC along approximately 8,000 track miles at a projected cost of around $1.8 billion. The installation of PTC capability involves work on thousands of locomotives; a large new wireless communications network; and thousands of trackside devices connected to signals, switches, and other wayside devices.

Here is an update on Norfolk Southern's progress at the close of 2016:

The NS Engineering team has installed:
•2,758 radio towers
•2,976 wayside interface units
•68 switch position monitors
•2,685 wayside radios
•321 base station radios

The NS Mechanical team has installed and readied:
•2,108 locomotives with onboard computers
•2,178 locomotives with PTC displays
•1,468 locomotives with PTC-capable event recorders
•1,304 locomotives with PTC-220 radios

•More than 1,300 locomotives are fully-equipped and PTC-operable.
•NS is operating PTC trains in revenue service demonstration runs across 1,020 miles of track.
•NS has trained more than 10,350 employees and their supervisors on job-specific PTC material.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/2kyEaC1