Union Pacific: PTC operating on 80 percent of route miles

(Source: Progressive Railroading 05/20/2019)

Union Pacific Railroad is now operating positive train control (PTC) on 80 percent of its route miles, the Class I announced late last week.

UP recently implemented PTC on 582 route miles, bringing required PTC-operated route miles to 13,597. PTC was implemented on all required passenger routes on track owned by UP in 2018, UP officials said in a press release.

Implementation efforts continue to ensure PTC interoperability with other freight and passenger railroads operating on UP track by 2020, as allowed by federal law, they said.

UP completed PTC installation on required route miles and employee training in fourth-quarter 2018. PTC education is ongoing as the Class I retrains employees and introduces the system to new employees.

With the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) conditional approval of UP’s PTC safety plan on April 26, 2017, UP is running PTC operations on more than 13,000 miles in 22 states.