What is Automatic Train Stop (ATS) Technology?
“The ATS system consists of a set of magnetic inductors placed next to the track at locations where trains approach a curve or permanent speed change. Metrolink added 49 inductors to its system in late 2009 to bring the total to 105 along its member-agency owned routes. The ATS system sounds an alarm and triggers a flashing alert from the engineer’s control panel when the train passes over an inductor. If the engineer does not push a button acknowledging the alert within approxi-mately eight seconds, the train brakes are automatically applied."
Photo used with the permission of Metrolink.
Ceres: Is PTC already in place?
Elissa: We are implementing that systemwide. It's on our trains, on the tracks, and the system and the signals are all working. We are testing it right now, and we're very far along in the process.
Ceres: How is it working, so far?
Elissa: We have on average about an 85% success rate, right now. That means if something didn't work, and a train just stopped for no reason, that would be due to a signal that didn't read correctly or something like that. So, we are trying to get all of those bugs worked out.
(For more information, see: http://www.metrolinktrains.com/agency/page/title/ptc )
Ceres: What about ATS? Does it work?
Patricia: Yes, it's on all of our trains. We have had that in place after the Chatsworth accident. It was kind of the immediate thing that the agency could do until the passage of the legislation to mandate PTC on all freight and commuter rail agencies across the country. Metrolink took charge and embraced that technology early on, and has been working very, very diligently since 2008 to get this done as quickly as possible. We are, basically, the first commuter route that has that on our system, and we are so far along in the process.
Ceres: On top of these two features, Metrolink has implemented other safety technologies, such as Crash Energy Management (CEM) technology, which better protect passengers and crews in the likelihood of a collision, and human error accident prevention Inward and Outward-Facing Video Cameras, and added an extra locomotive to its trains.
Let's review these implementations.
Inward and Outward-facing Video Cameras.
“Again demonstrating its leadership in rail safety innovation, Metrolink became the first railroad system in the nation – passenger or freight – to install inward-facing video cameras in all of its locomotives in late 2009. The cameras are designed to confirm trains are being operated properly, and serve as a deterrent to dangerous and inappropriate activities such as texting, unauthorized persons in the locomotive and sleeping."
Photo used with the permission of Metrolink.
92 - Ceres Magazine - Winter 2016