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FOCUS ON SAFETY

PTC REACHES

THE FINISH LINE

It has been a long, complex, expensive

trip, but Metra’s journey with Positive
Train Control (PTC) is finally nearing
the end—and the result is an even
safer system for our riders.

Sometime this fall, we expect to complete all the required steps Why was it hard in Chicago?
to implement the safety system, with a couple of months to One of the main PTC challenges was a requirement that any
spare before the yearend deadline. The new system, man- train operating over another railroad’s tracks must be able
dated by Congress after a fatal California accident in 2008, to communicate seamlessly with that railroad’s PTC system.
represents a major safety upgrade to an already safe mode Nowhere is that more difficult than Chicago, with its dense
of travel.
railroad network. Metra’s PTC system must work with the
“Installing PTC was a huge technological, logistical and PTC systems of 12 other railroad companies.
financial challenge, and we are incredibly proud of the work we
have done to complete it on time,” said Metra CEO/Executive What’s next?
Director Jim Derwinski. “The reward is knowing we can now PTC software will continue to evolve, adding functionality
give our customers even greater confidence that our trains and improvements to operations, reliability, security, and
are as safe as they can be.” maintenance. We will also need to continually maintain and
update the system’s hardware. And our train crews, dispatch-
What is PTC?
ers and field personnel on both mechanical and engineering
PTC is a system that will automatically stop a train if the will require time to understand and adjust to a new way of
engineer fails to obey a signal or exceeds the speed limit, doing business.
thereby preventing accidents. It uses GPS tracking, onboard
computers and Metra’s centralized train dispatching system
to monitor the crew’s operation of the train.

What did it cost? PTC by the Numbers
The final bill for implementation on Metra comes to about
$415 million, money that for the most part had to be diverted
from our already inadequate capital funding. In fact, Metra’s $415 million Total installation cost
financial struggles with PTC were a major contributing factor $20 million Annual operating cost
to fare hikes Metra implemented earlier this decade. Going
forward, Metra expects PTC to cost about $20 million annu- $11 billion Installation cost to railroad industry
ally to operate and maintain. 522 Metra locomotives, cab cars and
Highliners equipped with PTC
How did you do it? components
PTC had to be designed from the ground up. The software 347 Wayside interface units installed
had to be customized to each railroad and its specific attri-
butes. And because the entire industry pursued this project 12 Railroads that must be interoperable
with Metra
simultaneously, there were parts shortages, delays in acquir-
ing radio spectrum and in delivering software updates. Metra 217.5 Miles of track mapped by Metra
had to hire dozens of workers to design and install PTC. 2,043 Employees trained

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10/23/20 3:58 PM
MyMetraNewsletter-Nov2020-KYLNr6-single.indd 9
MyMetraNewsletter-Nov2020-KYLNr6-single.indd 9 10/23/20 3:58 PM