"Union Switch & Signal (US&S) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad (NYSE: UNP) to implement its real time Optimizing Traffic Planner™ (OTP) and Next Generation Computer Aided Dispatch System (CAD) throughout the railroad company’s more than 33,000-mile North American rail network. "
Looks like UP will really benefit from this over the next 5 years.
dd
The CAD you are talking about is not the CAD the original poster questioned. OG was questioning railroads Computer Aided Dispatching Systems, not public safety CAD, ie. Police, Fire and local government.
Railroad Train Dispatching using CADS is a highly disciplined operations to allow track occupancy by both trains operating on the tracks and the MofW personnel that are necessary to maintain the tracks that the trains operate upon. CADS does generate and retain a wealth of data about the physical operation of the carriers physical plant as well as creating verifyable data concerning intercarrier payments for such things as trackage rights and joint facilities payments that are based on train count or car count.
Since I retired before the Positive Train Control mandate was implemented, I don’t know exactly how PTC has been implemented in the framework of CADS, with PTC nominally being an overlay on the already existing train movement tools.
The post was an AI-driven marketing troll; note the plug for the business at the end.
I attempted to flag this for attention, but interestingly the Discourse software would not let me send it. I had to PM a member of the moderation staff to bring this to their attention.
It’s not even talking about train dispatchers. It’s CAD for emergency services (police, fire, medical) dispatchers.
The latest version of CAD, for trains, can interact with the energy management systems that are integrated with PTC. When the EMS is engaged, the entire system will run the trains at an optimal speed to make meets without stopping either train.
Jeff
Blockquote
If the dispatcher would keep me informed of what was coming up ahead I could do that myself without all the computer equipment that cost the railroads millions.
Mark Vinski
Before the implementation of CADS there way too many ‘what we have here is a failure to communicate’ incidents with trains running over MofW equipment and people.
The ‘Track Car Lineup’ and MofW protecting themselves against the trains listed on the line up - didn’t require computers to set up and didn’t provide any reliable protection to MofW.
With CADS MofW gets protected track authority that when implemented does not allow the Train Dispatcher to inadvertently line signals for a train to also occupy the track segment.
In the days of the Track Car Lineup - most communication between the field personnel and the Train Dispatcher took place through the third party of the Tower Operator as a intermediary to facilitate communication as radios were not in common use. MofW would ring up the Operator on the Block copper wire telephone. Operator would convey MofW’s information to the Train Dispatcher who in turn formulated the necessary Track Car Lineup to the Operator who in turn relayed it back to the MofW individual in the field.
In the 37 years that CADS has been in use on CSX the procedures have been revised and improved several times.
There’s a very similar series of programs used in the OTR industry for dispatching the trucks. The problem arises whenever you get weekend dispathers at least in the OTR industry that see a driver on their screen low on hours but they need a load rescused that they somehow think said driver can get it done. They forget about things like pretrip inspection of equipment traffic swapping out the trailers and all that stuff. Back when you had paper logs it was possible to stretch it a bit. With ELDs it doesn’t happen.
Then the driver has to explain to his regular dispatcher on Monday morning why his resetting of hours was destroyed. All for a load that still didn’t get rescued in time due to weekend dispatch not understanding the real world.
In railroading - that is the Crew Management function for Conductors and Engineers - Keeping track of individual’s rest status and location and work hours still available within the FRA limits for the week and the month.
Chief Dispatchers initiate the calling function for crews at a crew change location for a train through use of a computer application that notifies Crew Management. Terminal management initiate the calling function for their originating train as well as their extra yard crews. Regular advertised and awarded positions have a show up time and location for them to show up WITHOUT being notified. Some premier trains have assigned crews at various locations that are expected to show up at a designated time and location unless they are notified by Crew Management of some change.
FRA crew calling regulations prohibit employees from being called until they have had 10 Undisturbed hours rest from their previous off duty time. The normal time between being notified that the employee is called for duty and for them to be at the on duty point is two hours. The FRA has revised the Hours of Service regulations and their application to employee at least FIVE times during my 51 year period of employment - I have been retired for approaching 9 year and I suspect there might have been some changes during that time.
The carriers, at least CSX, have had for the past 40 years or so a variety of computer applications to assist in calling crews and complying with all applicable regulations, as they exist and as they change. The aim has been to totally automate the crew calling/employee notification process. By the time of my retirement a number of the calling/notification function HAD BEEN AUTOMATED. What has happened in the past nine years, I don’t know.