Are the crews able to communicate with each other to get an understanding of what going on? I’ve listened to radio traffic on the MRL in Mt. and it seems like the crews, dispatcher and MOW crews are in constant communication.
My specialty area is not cognizant of dispatching details. The dispatchers tell the trains what to do; the PTC system tells the trains whether they may do it at all.
However a common problem causing wrecks is crews fallen asleep or that otherwise blow by a signal. If they are not alert to signals, I doubt that they care about the radio either. PTC gets around this by stopping a train heading into danger even if, hypothetically, its whole crew was knocked out.
Or rather, the dispatchers tell the CREWS what to do with their trains....