New Rock Island Line schedule finalized to meet demands of Positive Train Control
https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/new-rock-island-line-schedule-finalized-meet-demands-positive-train-control
To handle as many passengers as it does during the morning rush period, Metra must quickly turn trains around at downtown stations and send them back out to make more inbound trips. The same applies to the evening rush period, as trains complete their trips to the suburbs and turn back to pick up more customers downtown. Metra calls this process “flipping” a train, and it will take longer because of PTC.
To flip a train, the engineer must move from the cab car to the locomotive or vice versa, and the crew must clear the train, perform a brake test and conduct a job briefing. With the added task of initializing the PTC system, these “flips” are expected to take more than 10 minutes, so the schedule of about a dozen trains were adjusted, and those changes, in turn, affected other trains on the schedule. A video explaining the changes can be found at metrarail.com/PTC.
https://metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/new-rock-island-line-schedule-finalized-meet-demands-positive-train-control
To handle as many passengers as it does during the morning rush period, Metra must quickly turn trains around at downtown stations and send them back out to make more inbound trips. The same applies to the evening rush period, as trains complete their trips to the suburbs and turn back to pick up more customers downtown. Metra calls this process “flipping” a train, and it will take longer because of PTC.
To flip a train, the engineer must move from the cab car to the locomotive or vice versa, and the crew must clear the train, perform a brake test and conduct a job briefing. With the added task of initializing the PTC system, these “flips” are expected to take more than 10 minutes, so the schedule of about a dozen trains were adjusted, and those changes, in turn, affected other trains on the schedule. A video explaining the changes can be found at metrarail.com/PTC.