SEPTA begins monthly PTC update as deadline approaches

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

With the Congressionally-mandated December 31, 2015, deadline for many freight lines and all intercity and commuter rail systems to install, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) has been working continuously over the past seven years to build and install a Positive Train Control (PTC) system across its regional rail network.

With a little more than six months away, SEPTA plans to release a monthly update on PTC progress through the deadline and then into 2016 as it completes the last of the testing and fine-tuning of the system.

“PTC is critically important to us because of the level of service we provide – 740 weekday trips operated by our 13 regional rail lines; the hybrid nature of the right-of-way we operate on – some we control and share with independent freight carriers and some we share, by agreement with Amtrak and the technological ability we now have to run our trains on all tracks, in all directions at any time,” the agency stated in its June update. “All these make for a sophisticated and complex operation so every resource we can employ and every tool we can provide our train personnel enhances the safe operation of our system and the safety of our customers, crews and equipment.”

SEPTA notes that one of the biggest tasks it has yet to tackle is the installation of the on board vehicle/locomotive systems. The transit authority says it is working to minimize the impact to its riders, but with ridership at record breaking levels, taking a single car out of the revenue fleet has an affect.

SEPTA anticipates full implementation of PTC will “come down to the wire,” but says it is working hard to meet the deadline with a capital investment of $328 million, years of continuous work to upgrade signals, communication systems, vehicles and installation of new systems at its operations control center.

To date, SEPTA has completed the following work:

1. Wayside signal systems installation – substantially complete

2. Communications systems installation – substantially complete

3. Control center systems installation – 80 percent complete

4. On board vehicle/locomotive system installations – 41 percent complete

5. Frazer Yard test track proof of concept – 100 percent complete

 

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