The recent release of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) annual Most Wanted List has once again shone a spotlight upon rail safety in the United States.
The list, described as a "road map from lessons learned to lives saved," this year has a major focus on technology and its role in improving safety. The top ten includes several rail specific requests including a renewed push for the implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), an improvement of rail transit safety oversight and changes to rail tank car management. These are all key themes at the upcoming SafeRail (incorporating the 6th annual PTC World Congress) coming to Washington on March 22-23 2016 where Christopher A. Hart, Chairman of the NTSB is a lead speaker and will be discussing in further detail the key priorities for transit safety in the USA.
As the NTSB Most Wanted list has shown safety on US railroads remains a key concern for all stakeholders. Increasingly, operators are looking for whole-system reliability but to achieve this, key financial, strategic and technical challenges must be overcome.
Whilst the extension of the PTC mandate gives operators breathing space on their deployment, it also offers more time to take advantage of rapidly evolving IT that provide and the extra opportunities this makes available.
Responding to these changing market opportunities and based on a 5 year track record of hosting the world's leading PTC World Congress, comes SafeRail, a two day Congress taking place where the crucial transit safety decisions are made – Washington DC on March 22-23.
