OMAHA — Union Pacific says it has completed positive train control implementation by activating the final segment of track requiring the safety system. More than 17,000 miles of the railroad are now operating with PTC in 22 states.
“PTC is one of the biggest rail industry breakthroughs, designed to keep our crews and communities safer through technology,” Greg Richardson, Union Pacific general director, Operating Systems and Practice, said in a Monday press release. “While Union Pacific began its first PTC operations nearly four years ago, we have now completed our initial implementation and continue supporting other railroads in our mutual efforts to achieve interoperability and safely operate on our rail lines.”
UP lines host 25 freight and passenger railroads which must achieve PTC interoperability by December 2020. Sixteen have done so, UP reports, covering 85% of the railroad’s interoperable train-miles. UP is working with the remaining railroads with the goal of achieving interoperability by mid-2020.
