A system for enhancing personnel safety on a railroad track is presented. The system can receive data from sensors and/or a PTC system to determine positions of clients/worker and/or vehicles, and further utilize such data to determine if a vehicle is within a certain proximity of the client/worker location. The system can further generate geofences around clients/vehicles to and determine when such geofences intersect one another. Additionally, the present disclosure can assign severity levels and generate alerts with the assigned severity levels, and such severity levels can indicate how close a vehicle is to a particular location. It is an object of the invention to provide a system for generating alerts to notify personnel when they much retreat to a place of safety.

A vehicle control system includes a controller disposed onboard a first vehicle system and comprising one or more processors. The controller is operably connected to a propulsion and braking subsystem of the first vehicle system. The controller is configured to analyze a notification message received from an off-board source as the first vehicle system travels on a route. The notification message identifies an unplanned brake application made by a second vehicle system. In response to the notification message, the controller is configured to control the propulsion and braking subsystem to modify movement of the first vehicle system based at least in part on a location of the second vehicle system to avoid the second vehicle system.

A train control system enabling a train to smoothly travel while performing handover. The system includes an on-vehicle wireless station mounted on a train following a preceding train and connected to an on-vehicle control device of the train, ground wireless base stations capable of wirelessly communicating with the on-vehicle wireless station, and a base station control device to control the base stations. The ground wireless base station is located between the ground wireless base station with which the on-vehicle wireless station is communicating and the ground wireless base station forming a communication area including a travelling permission point determined by a position of the train. The base station control device reserves radio resources of the ground wireless base stations while communicating with the ground wireless base station.

The present invention provides a network system of a railcar, the network system being capable of efficiently performing maintenance work. One example of the network system of the railcar of the present invention includes: intra-car networks (N1 to N3) to which first and second apparatuses are connected; an inter-car network (NA) for transmission of information between the apparatuses mounted on different cars; routers (R1 to R3) each provided and connected between the corresponding intra-car network (N1 to N3) and the inter-car network (NA) and each including a network address translation portion configured to mutually convert a private address of the first apparatus and an IP address of the inter-car network (NA); and a maintenance transmission path forming unit configured to form a transmission path through which the transmission and reception of the information are performed between a maintenance terminal (5) and a maintenance target apparatus selected from the first and second apparatuses, the transmission path not passing through the network address translation portion of the car on which the maintenance target apparatus is mounted.

A method for applying a plurality of vehicles each including an onboard server and at least two apparatuses, an onboard server and each of the apparatuses storing initial data, each onboard server being connected to the apparatuses mounted in the same vehicle with a local network. The method includes the steps of transferring modified data, through an extended radiofrequency communication network, from a server on the ground towards the onboard servers, when the modified data have been stored in memory in each onboard server, emitting via the extended network, an updating command, and transmitting modified data to at least one apparatus through the corresponding local network, the modified data replacing, in said apparatus, the initial data.

Systems and methods for correlating wireless communication performance with vehicle system configurations determine wireless message characteristics of wireless messages communicated with vehicles in vehicle systems and locations along a route where the wireless message characteristics were determined. The wireless message characteristics and the locations can be determined during movement of the vehicle systems along a route. Relative positions of the vehicles in the vehicle systems is obtained, and a signal propagation profile is determined based on the wireless message characteristics, the locations where the wireless message characteristics were determined, and the relative positions of the vehicles. The signal propagation profile can represent relationships between the wireless message characteristics, the relative positions of the vehicles, and the locations along the route. This profile can be used to control movement and/or communication of other rail vehicle systems, to generate trip plans for other vehicle systems, to diagnose communication faults, and the like.

An emergency braking control circuit based on coupler coupling detection includes a coupler status detection circuit and a coupler status relay that are connected in series with a train power loop. A normally open contact of the coupler status relay is connected to an emergency braking train line in a cross-parallel manner. When a coupler is coupled normally, inductive proximity sensors located at a knuckle and a central pivot are closed to drive the coupler status relay, and the normally open contact of the coupler status relay is connected in a cross-parallel manner to ensure that a corresponding node of the emergency braking loop is closed. In case of abnormal coupling or accidental uncoupling of couplers, the inductive proximity sensors of the couplers of two adjacent cars are disconnected simultaneously, the coupler status relays of the two cars are powered off, and emergency braking is applied.

A train management method includes sending a registration request to a takeover zone controller (ZC) in response to determining that the train enters an area of co-management, so that the takeover ZC calculates a second movement authority (MA) of the train according to the registration request and exchanges information with a handover ZC, determining a target MA according to a first MA of the handover ZC for the train and the second MA of the takeover ZC for the train, and traveling according to the target MA within the area of co-management. The area of co-management is composed of a part of an area of management of the handover ZC and a part of an area of management of the takeover ZC.

A system and method generate a trip plan for a trip of a vehicle system along a route. The usage of an engine during the trip is determined based on engine operational parameters, energy storage device operational parameters, and one or more objectives of the trip desired to be achieved. The usage of the energy storage device during the trip is also determined based on the engine operational parameters, the energy storage device operational parameters, and the one or more objective, including when to charge or discharge the energy storage device during the trip.

The present invention provides a braking system (11) for braking a train. The system comprises an electronically controlled pneumatic brake network (ECP) and a brake activation unit (14). The brake activation unit provides status reports regarding the condition of the ECP and comprises at least one sensor for monitoring one or more properties of the ECP, and at least one venting means adapted to vent the pressure from a brake pipe (21). The system also comprises a telecommunication network (15, 17, 19) adapted to communicate with the brake activation unit. The brake activation unit can be activated using the telecommunication network to vent the pressure from the brake pipe, causing the train to brake.