Would have been prevented .... in 2018.
“BNSF has pledged to meet a 2018 federal deadline to adopt technology, called positive train control or PTC, that relies on GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor train positions and automatically slow or stop trains that are in danger of colliding, derailing due to excessive speed or about to enter track where crews are working or that is otherwise off limits. At least three freight railroads have said they’ll need an extension to 2020.”
Or sooner, smarty gator. I happen to be a contractor for a different, unnamed Class 1 freight railroad, programming the computer back end of this same system. While I do not know what BNSF’s schedule is, a 3-year roll-out is happening with the railroad I work with, and there would be good reason to believe BNSF’s is similar.
Along with the benefits comes some vulnerability. Because of the near fire-drill pace of the deployment (and talking about 2018 for completion) the security measures may not be as good as they could be. Tampering with the system could at least defeat its purpose, and possibly bring a whole railroad’s trains to a halt because it is basically a “mother may I” architecture. If the system does not give the train the go-ahead, the train must stop.
The roads have been working hard on PTC implementation for years now. 2018 is a pretty realistic timeframe considering how much work is left to do. It’s not a trivial problem.
Which I like to point out whenever people start talking about self-driving cars. PTC for trains is an order of magnitude easier, and it’s taking a decade and billions of dollars to implement...