Operation Respond, under a Cooperative Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), is working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Amtrak and CSX Transportation (CSXT) to develop a cutting-edge safety and security incident location technology for use along commuter rail and transit corridors in the nation's capital. This technology application, known as the OREIS™ Access© Rail Incident Location System, will allow responders to quickly confirm exact train location and the surrounding environment in emergencies, by quick reference to displays of pre-surveyed rail landmarks, matched with vicinity street maps and detailed overhead imagery.
The OREIS™ Access© software will facilitate public agency emergency response, pre-planning and on-scene tactical operations in response to accidents and potential terrorist/criminal incidents. Using a coordinated system of maps, streets, and rail and transit landmarks, the system helps eliminate confusion and uncertainty about an accident's location. This can significantly reduce response time.
For the rail transit application, the partnership between WMATA and Operation Respond identified and collected rail transit geo-references for the approximately 100 route miles of Metrorail's surface rights-of-way and tunnels in Washington, DC, northern Virginia and Maryland. The nature and design of the rail transit infrastructure can effectively result in numerous access restrictions, especially when incidents occur between stations. This means that emergency access to the train can present a difficult problem, even when on the surface. Locating emergency features, even in above-ground incidents, requires that emergency responders to possess accurate mapping, charts and diagramming and train position information.
Recognizing these problems, baseline track centerline geo-references developed by WMATA from survey stationing data (chain markers) were coupled with emergency features and diagrams (Metrorail's Emergency Response Maps) important to the emergency response community, producing a searchable database for overlay on street maps and high resolution imagery. WMATA senior safety, engineering/survey and security officials were actively involved in progressing this large-scale effort.
"WMATA is always looking for ways to provide additional tools to the emergency response community. Operation Respond has proven to be a good vehicle for this by developing easy-to-use technology for responders. Metrorail's top priority is the safety of our customers and Operation Respond provides another tool to maintain this commitment," said Mr. R. Sean Burgess, General Superintendent - Systems Maintenance of WMATA, who has been instrumental in the planning and success of this project.
WMATA operations and safety staff and Metro Transit Police are currently evaluating the prototype and preparing recommendations for deployment throughout the Metrorail system. FTA will work with Operation Respond to examine the software's applicability to other transit systems.
For development and testing purposes in the heavy commuter rail environment, Operation Respond entered into a partnership with Amtrak, host railroad for Maryland's MARC Penn Line commuter rail network operating on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and CSXT, host carrier for the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and MARC's Camden and Brunswick Lines.
This partnership focused on developing a series of geo-coded heavy rail landmarks to locate a train's position in relation to right-of-way access points, signal maintainer's wayside roads or fence openings, etc. Even in urban area incidents, railroad police and public agency emergency responders need accurate mapping, overhead imagery, and bridge and structure information to merge with train position information. This is particularly important if radio contact is lost with the train/engine crew, preventing dispatchers from obtaining their visual reference.
Amtrak and CSXT are making available to Operation Respond their respective aerial lidar-based track infrastructure databases for their Washington area operations for this project. This survey system is the railroad and utility/pipeline industry standard for accuracy in linear geo-referencing, and clearly has broad applicability to commuter rail operators in North America. Emphasis was placed on identifying compatible references for the OREIS™ Access© Rail Incident Location System to directly link with street and geographic feature maps and overhead imagery, including:
(1) Railway signals
(2) Mileposts
(3) Street and railroad bridges (above/under grade) and culverts
(4) Interlockings/turnouts/crossovers
(5) Passenger stations/platforms
(6) Electric catenary pole bases, on the NEC
Work by Operation Respond on the Amtrak-hosted MARC Penn Line is nearing completion, and awaits final assembly of imagery. CSXT is working on completing and annotating the Fredericksburg, VA-to-Washington VRE route, the Washington-to-Martinsburg, WV and the Washington-to-Baltimore MARC routes. Imagery mosaics are also being assembled. A completion date of June, 2004 is anticipated.
With a growing nationwide network of connected emergency response professionals, Operation Respond is solving community outreach issues for rail and transit carriers while improving on-scene safety and preparedness for the nation's emergency responders. The mass deployment of OREIS™ throughout the country, coupled with the Access© pilot in greater Washington, DC, will have significant, positive implications for resolving safety and security issues facing the commuter rail and transit industries.
February 9, 2004