Rail

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April 1, 2017

GNSS for ERTMS Train Localization

Demo Test in Italy on Cagliari – Decimomannu line – February 24, 2017. From left: Josef Doppelbauer (Executive director of ERA – European Union Agency for Rail), Maurizio Gentile (Chief Executive Officer of RFI – Rete Ferroviaria Italiana), Jean-Pierre Loubinoux (Director General of UIC – the worldwide professional association representing the railway sector and promoting rail transport), Carlo des Dorides (Executive director of GSA).

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By Inside GNSS
Federal Railroad Administration Announces Status Updates to GPS-Aided Collision Avoidance System
August 24, 2016

Federal Railroad Administration Announces Status Updates to GPS-Aided Collision Avoidance System

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) last week released a status update that calls for railroads to roll out Positive Train Control (PTC) technologies, which incorporates GNSS technology, as soon as possible. The update also underscores the Obama administration’s calls to provide more funding to assist commuter railroads in implementing PTC.

PTC uses GNSS, but mostly GPS, to prevent train-to-train collisions, high-speed derailments, and the unauthorized movement of trains into work zones.

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By Inside GNSS
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Up in the AIRR
March 28, 2016

Up in the AIRR

Anyone who has sat through several iterations of a slide presentation by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can’t help but wonder if there isn’t a better way to do things.

As speakers flip through an exhaustively vetted series of PowerPoint slides, squeezing out a new bullet point or two from one version to the next six months later, watching paint dry seems like a more productive — and briefer — use of one’s time. The agency sometimes brings a whole new meaning to the concept of geological time.

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By Dee Ann Divis
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January 14, 2016

GPS-Aided Positive Train Control Goes Back on Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted List for 2016

NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart

Once again, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended GPS-aided positive train control (PTC) as one of its “most wanted” transportation safety improvements in 2016. But the agency, which has been advocating for PTC for more than 45 years, appears to be fighting an uphill battle against Congress and the railroad industry.

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By Inside GNSS
Positive Train Control Postponed
November 17, 2015

Positive Train Control Postponed

When the President signed a three-week extension — until Friday (November 20, 2015) — of federal transportation funding, he also gave railroads another three years to install positive train control or PTC on their locomotives and rail networks.

Rail operators now have until 2018 to upgrade their systems — plus another two years to actually get them working.

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By Inside GNSS
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Study: GPS Contributed More Than $68 Billion to the U.S. Economy
June 16, 2015

Study: GPS Contributed More Than $68 Billion to the U.S. Economy

GPS contributed more than $68 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013, according to the preliminary results of a new study presented to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.

And the study’s author, Irv Leveson, a consultant to ASCR Federal Research and Technology Solutions, LLC, described that figure as conservative because it did not fully incorporate a host of GPS applications including those depending on GPS timing information.

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By Inside GNSS
Still Not a Thing, Part 2
May 26, 2015

Still Not a Thing, Part 2

One of the first feature articles I wrote as a newly minted GNSS magazine editor 26 years ago was about an advanced rail traffic management system based on GPS that Burlington Northern, with the help of Rockwell Collins, had designed and implemented.

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By Inside GNSS
GNSS & Geohazards
July 21, 2014

GNSS & Geohazards

Ken Hudnut, U.S. Geological Survey

For at least two decades, GPS experts, geodesists, and public agencies have been working together to develop high-accuracy, large-scale continuously operating GPS reference stations that provide them the capability to monitor and model crustal deformation, tectonic plate movement, and the effects of geohazards such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Now, GNSS-augmented advance warning systems are going into place that can give us a crucial margin of safety in the event of an earthquake.

And none too soon.

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By Inside GNSS
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