Dispatching Advances Will Boost Efficiency

By Tom Schmidt, Vice-President, Advanced Signalling & Dispatch Technology, CSXT

1. Among the major US railroads, CSX Transportation has been at the forefront of technological innovation, including pioneering the recent trend towards centralized train dispatching for an entire network at a single location. It is over 10 years since we opened the Dufford Transportation Centre in Jacksonville, Florida, to consolidate our railroad’s operations management functions.

2. Since then, we have gained many benefits from consolidation, and have learned by experience the potential pitfalls. In many ways, improvements in railroad safety and efficiency have followed the advances in communications technology. We have come a long way since stations had to be built at 16 km intervals because that was the practical limit for sending a telegraph signal!

3. By the mid 1980s, CSXT had 650 dispatchers at 33 locations scattered across 40 000 route-km in 22 states east of the Mississippi. Many of these locations were equipped with outdated technology, with electro-mechanical switches and push buttons to set individual turnouts or clear signals. The cost of updating these systems was a major factor in the decision to invest in a modern, centralized facility using the latest communications and signaling technologies.

4. Around the clock, seven days a week, the 240 dispatchers at the Dufford Centre handle around 1 400 trains a day on approximately 29 000 route-km. Of this, 12 800 km is equipped with a traffic control system (TCS) using lineside signals, and most of the rest is under direct train control (DTC).

5. The improvement resulting from the consolidation has been spectacular, with a significant reduction in operating expenses and the elimination of much obsolete field equipment. Computers allow dispatchers to cover greater territories by removing paperwork; for example, train sheets on which dispatchers recorded by hand the names of the crew and the progress of the train are now prepared automatically.

6. Dispatchers communicate with crews in their territories via radio, using hundreds of base stations strategically placed across the network, and linked to the centre via leased telephone lines. The overall level of radio coverage is excellent.

7. In addition to dispatchers, the centre houses locomotive distribution and train performance managers in a single location, greatly improving the efficiency of train operations.

8. Configured in three tiers, the circular room is 46 m in diameter, with large colour-coded wall displays providing a schematic overview of the network. Information displayed to the dispatchers includes train identities and locations, along with signal, turnout and track status. Workstations have colour consoles able to display close-ups of parts of the big screen, and touch-screen monitors for managing communications links.

9. The quality of communication over long distances has been excellent, and we have planned for emergency situations by providing toll-free telephone numbers for local police departments to contact Jacksonville. If any train or maintenance of way crew member holds down the ‘9’ button on his radio, he is automatically connected to a dispatcher, who is immediately informed that it is an emergency call.