Submitted by Alan Kandel (not verified) on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 10:54am.
I researched this further and here is some of what I found.
Pittsburgh Business Times Reporter Malia Spencer in "A looming federal mandate has Wabtec poised to be go-to company for train fail-safe system" (http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/print-edition/2011/12/09/federal-m...), wrote: "With a federal deadline looming for the railroad industry, rail products manufacturer Wabtec is in familiar territory.
"The company — official name Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies — is poised to benefit from a December 2015 mandate that the nation’s railroads implement a high-tech braking fail-safe system. At the moment, Wabtec is the only company with an approved product that meets the mandate’s requirements."
Spencer went on to point out that Wabtec, over the last ten years, has invested over $100 million in developing Positive Train Control technology.
“'Currently, we are working closely with the railroads to design a positive train control system that will consistently perform across the entire U.S. rail network,'[Wabtec President and CEO Al] Neupaver told industry analysts during the company’s third-quarter conference call," Spencer wrote in citing Neupaver.
In all, the positive train control mandate will affect between 70,000 and 80,000 miles of America's total 140,000-mile track network, according to Spencer, citing the Association of American Railroads.
"According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 30,000 locomotives will need to be outfitted with the technology. Overall, the mandate is expected to cost the industry more than $5 billion to implement," Spencer wrote.
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I researched this further and here is some of what I found.
Pittsburgh Business Times Reporter Malia Spencer in "A looming federal mandate has Wabtec poised to be go-to company for train fail-safe system" (http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/print-edition/2011/12/09/federal-m...), wrote: "With a federal deadline looming for the railroad industry, rail products manufacturer Wabtec is in familiar territory.
"The company — official name Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies — is poised to benefit from a December 2015 mandate that the nation’s railroads implement a high-tech braking fail-safe system. At the moment, Wabtec is the only company with an approved product that meets the mandate’s requirements."
Spencer went on to point out that Wabtec, over the last ten years, has invested over $100 million in developing Positive Train Control technology.
“'Currently, we are working closely with the railroads to design a positive train control system that will consistently perform across the entire U.S. rail network,'[Wabtec President and CEO Al] Neupaver told industry analysts during the company’s third-quarter conference call," Spencer wrote in citing Neupaver.
In all, the positive train control mandate will affect between 70,000 and 80,000 miles of America's total 140,000-mile track network, according to Spencer, citing the Association of American Railroads.
"According to the Federal Railroad Administration, 30,000 locomotives will need to be outfitted with the technology. Overall, the mandate is expected to cost the industry more than $5 billion to implement," Spencer wrote.