The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C. in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length. Carrying more than 2,200 trains a day, it is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and by service frequency.
The PATCO Speedline, signed in Philadelphia as the Lindenwold Line and also known colloquially as the PATCO High Speed Line, is a rapid transit route operated by the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), which runs between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden County, New Jersey.
Cab signaling is a railway safety system that communicates track status and condition information to the cab, crew compartment or driver's compartment of a locomotive, railcar or multiple unit. The information is continually updated giving an easy to read display to the train driver or engine driver.
The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network owned by SEPTA and serving the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, its suburbs and satellite towns and cities. It is the sixth-busiest commuter railroad in the United States, and the busiest outside of the New York, Chicago, and Boston metropolitan areas. In 2016, the Regional Rail system had an average of 132,000 daily riders and 118,800 daily riders as of 2019.
Automatic train control (ATC) is a general class of train protection systems for railways that involves a speed control mechanism in response to external inputs. For example, a system could effect an emergency brake application if the driver does not react to a signal at danger. ATC systems tend to integrate various cab signalling technologies and they use more granular deceleration patterns in lieu of the rigid stops encountered with the older automatic train stop (ATS) technology. ATC can also be used with automatic train operation (ATO) and is usually considered to be the safety-critical part of a railway system.
The Keystone Corridor is a 349-mile (562 km) railroad corridor between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that consists of two rail lines: Amtrak and SEPTA's Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg main line, which hosts SEPTA's Paoli/Thorndale Line commuter rail service, and Amtrak's Keystone Service and Pennsylvanian inter-city trains; and the Norfolk Southern Pittsburgh Line. The corridor was originally the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Automatic train stop or ATS is a system on a train that automatically stops a train if certain situations occur to prevent accidents. In some scenarios it functions as a type of dead man's switch. Automatic train stop differs from the concept of Automatic Train Control in that ATS usually does not feature an onboard speed control mechanism.
Schuylkill River Passenger Rail is a proposed passenger train service along the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia and Reading, Pennsylvania, with intermediate stops in Norristown, King of Prussia, Phoenixville, and Pottstown.
Linienzugbeeinflussung is a cab signalling and train protection system used on selected German and Austrian railway lines as well as on the AVE and some commuter rail lines in Spain. The system was mandatory where trains were allowed to exceed speeds of 160 km/h (99 mph) in Germany and 220 km/h (140 mph) in Spain. It is also used on some slower railway and urban rapid transit lines to increase capacity. The German Linienzugbeeinflussung translates to continuous train control, literally: linear train influencing. It is also called linienförmige Zugbeeinflussung.
Transmission Voie-Machine is a form of in-cab signalling originally deployed in France and is mainly used on high-speed railway lines. TVM-300 was the first version, followed by TVM-430.
Standards for North American railroad signaling in the United States are issued by the Association of American Railroads (AAR), which is a trade association of the railroads of Canada, the US, and Mexico. Their system is loosely based on practices developed in the United Kingdom during the early years of railway development. However, North American practice diverged from that of the United Kingdom due to different operating conditions and economic factors between the two regions. In Canada, the Canadian Rail Operating Rules (CROR) are approved by the Minister of Transport under the authority of the Railway Safety Act. Each railway company or transit authority in Canada issues its own CROR rulebook with special instructions peculiar to each individual property. Among the distinctions are:
The Continuous Automatic Warning System (CAWS) is a form of cab signalling and train protection system used in Ireland to help train drivers observe and obey lineside signals.
Positive train control (PTC) is a family of automatic train protection systems deployed in the United States. Most of the United States' national rail network mileage has a form of PTC. These systems are generally designed to check that trains are moving safely and to stop them when they are not.
North American railroad signals generally fall into the category of multi-headed electrically lit units displaying speed-based or weak route signaling. Signals may be of the searchlight, color light, position light, or color position light types, each displaying a variety of aspects which inform the locomotive operator of track conditions so that they may keep their train under control and able to stop short of any obstruction or dangerous condition.
Amtrak's 25 Hz traction power system is a traction power network for the southern portion of the Northeast Corridor (NEC), the Keystone Corridor, and several branch lines between New York City and Washington D.C. The system was constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad between 1915 and 1938 before the North American power transmission grid was fully established. This is the reason the system uses 25 Hz, as opposed to 60 Hz, which is the standard frequency for power transmission in North America. The system is also known as the Southend Electrification, in contrast to Amtrak's 60 Hz traction power system that runs between Boston and New Haven, which is known as the Northend Electrification system.
The Jersey Arrow is a type of electric multiple unit (EMU) railcar developed for the Pennsylvania Railroad, and used through successive commuter operators in New Jersey, through to NJ Transit. Three models were built, but only the third model is in use today. The series is similar to SEPTA's Silverliner series, but include center doors among other differences in details.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) operates a 25 Hz traction power system in the vicinity of Philadelphia, that it inherited from the Reading Company. This system is separate from, but similar to, the system built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which is now operated by Amtrak. SEPTA's trains can run over either system because the voltage and frequency presented to the locomotive are essentially identical. However, the ex-Reading system is not electrically connected to the ex-PRR system.
ALSN is a train control system used widely on the main lines of the ex-Soviet states. It uses modulated pulses inducted into rails similar to the Italian RS4 Codici and American Pulse Code Cab Signaling. On high-speed lines the variant ALS-EN (АЛС-ЕН) is used which takes advantage of a double phase difference modulation of the carrier wave.
The Budd Silverliner was a model of electric multiple unit railcar designed and built by the Budd Company with 59 examples being delivered starting in 1963. Fifty-five of the cars were purchased for the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads with public funds for use in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area commuter rail service with the remaining 4 cars being purchased by USDOT for use in high-speed rail experiments in 1965. Based on a series of 6 prototype Pioneer III cars built in 1958, the Silverliners represented the first production order of "modern" commuter MU equipment purchased by either railroad and earned their name from their unpainted stainless steel construction which contrasted with the painted carbon steel bodies of the pre-war MU fleets. The cars became a fixture of SEPTA Regional Rail service providing the name to their entire series of EMU railcars before finally being retired in 2012 after 49 years in service.
Anuncio de Señales y Frenado Automático is an Automatic Train Protection system widely deployed on the Spanish rail network. It consists of a mechanism that stops a train if the driver does not properly heed signals.
