PTSI Transportation has commenced work on an application of its Route Learning System™ (the digital replacement for its Linear Route Profile™) for NJ Transit’s Newark Light Rail system.
Newark Light Rail, along with NJT’s Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, the Belt Railway Company of Chicago and the former Amtrak Peninsula Service, were users of the first-generation Linear Route Profile™. Route Learning System™ is “a new-generation operations training program, a digital learning system used to teach the physical characteristics of any railway, including freight, passenger and rail transit, to operating employees, railway or transit police and security officers, and external first responders,” according to PTSI Managing Director Michael Weinman.
The Route Learning System™ consists of a series of digital maps/charts (both hard copy and electronic), as well as a video of the railroad taken from the engineer’s/operator’s perspective. These are shown in synchronization, on a dual or split screen. The program has key physical characteristics (signals, turnouts, crossings, etc.) highlighted on both video and charts, and an optional physical characteristics test module.
Details about two main elements:
• Maps: Overlaid on a track chart are the all the physical characteristics, including signals, turnouts, authorized speeds, civil structures (buildings, overpasses, bridges), waterways, highway crossing details, defect detectors, RCL zones, dispatching/control territories, emergency access/egress points, municipal boundaries, emergency responder contact telephones, train radio channels, electric traction details as appropriate, even curvature and gradients if required. Each type of characteristic is color coded. Further detail can be added by links to information, drawings, and records, stored in a central database. A map screen may even be right in the cab, scrolling with the train movement.
• Video: Shot from the head end of the train from the engineer’s or operator’s perspective, in both directions on the route, detailing all of the physical characteristics shown on the maps and charts. Graphics and highlights (which momentarily freeze the action for clarity and emphasis) are added, and a voiceover calls attention to locations and important territorial and operational information. As the video moves, the adjacent map on the screen moves with it, and when a new starting point and direction is chosen the map relocates and restarts with it.
“This versatile tool can be viewed in a training center or taken home for personal study, or the charts can be viewed directly in the operating cab as a constant reminder, to enhance situational awareness,” said Weinman. “The unique first-hand perspective of the video combined with the scrolling charts promotes comprehension of the physical characteristics that far exceeds the learning quality of rote memory. It also allows for consistency in training and reduction in qualification time, and can be used by others, including engineering, as it can reach into network resources and bring up detail drawings of any location. Pop-up photographs can be used to enhance the view or enlarge perspective. First responders can also be trained by the Route Learning System™.”
Weinman said PTSI Transportation “looks forward to working with the operating and engineering staff of Newark Light Rail to produce a learning tool and an engineering resource that will enhance the safety and operations of this vital and growing transit corridor.”