ENTERPRISE PERSPECTIVE

摘要

Railroads, as an industry, are 50% Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), 50% Dark Territory, albeit one-third of the latter is Absolute Block Signaling (ABS), a nested level of vitality. Now, there is a form of Next-Generation Train Control (NGTC)-Virtual CTC (VCTC)-that can offer tremendous benefits. VCTC, however, requires suppliers and railroads willing to consider paradigm shifts in all four Core Technologies. These are Communications, Mobile IT Platforms, Positioning, and IT Architecture All provide the opportunity to implement "Decisive Railroading," an advanced level of railroading that can greatly reduce the capital investment and ongoing maintenance expenditures of conventional CTC operations and IT architectures, while improving the efficiency and safety of freight and passenger railroads alike.