Union Pacific reports Positive Train Control progress

Union Pacific has installed Positive Train Control (PTC) equipment on 100 per cent of required route miles and has successfully implemented it on all required passenger train routes.

Implementation efforts continue to ensure PTC interoperability with other freight and passenger railroads operating on Union Pacific tracks by 2020, as allowed by federal law.

One of the challenging aspects of PTC implementation is ensuring system interoperability among all U.S. rail lines and locomotives. Given the various readiness levels of North American freight and passenger railroads, including publicly-funded commuter lines and short lines, it is important that all railroads continue working together to maintain the health, safety, resiliency and fluidity of the rail network during PTC implementation.

Union Pacific’s fourth quarter 2018 accomplishments included educating 606 employees on PTC operations, bringing the total number of employees trained to 26,610 (100 per cent); and increasing by 1,095 the number of implemented PTC route miles, bringing the total number of route miles in PTC operations to 13,015 (76 per cent).

PTC education is ongoing as Union Pacific retrains employees and introduces the system to new staff members. Training materials are tailored to a variety of employee roles, including engineer, conductor, dispatcher, maintenance of way/engineering, mechanical, signal, telecom and information technologies.

Four out of five passenger rail carriers are currently operating PTC-equipped trains over Union Pacific lines.

With the FRA’s conditional approval of Union Pacific’s PTC safety plan, Union Pacific is running PTC operations on more than 13,000 miles in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.