Intelligent Transportation System/Positive Train Control at Highway-Rail Intersections

Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has sponsored research, conducted by the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center of the U.S. DOT Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), aimed at integrating Positive Train Control (PTC) and Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technologies. The objective of this research is to improve safety and efficiency at highway-rail intersections (HRIs) by finding affordable, standardized systems that can be installed at HRIs to provide immediate safety benefits. The immediate goal is to validate, through demonstration projects, the cost-effective safety benefits of promising ITS technologies. By evaluating systems using evolving ITS technologies at HRIs in corridors where PTC will be installed, existing infrastructure may be utilized to minimize demonstration development and cost. Figure 1 shows a typical PTC configuration.