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    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
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    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
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      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
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      <title>Quick-Response Research on Long-Term Strategic Issues. Task 55. Impact of Positive Train Control</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2636147</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Positive train control (PTC) is an advanced rail safety technology designed to mitigate human error and improve operational safety. It reduces the risk of accidents by preventing or reducing train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, improperly lined switches, and unauthorized incursion into work zones. Public transportation agencies that operate commuter and intercity passenger rail services have been required to have PTC installed since 2020. To meet this deadline, agencies had to invest immense resources into new infrastructure and specially trained staff to develop and test the system. 

While PTC implementation has been extensively documented, less is known about its long-term operational impacts, realized safety benefits, and opportunities for leveraging PTC investments beyond regulatory compliance. Now that agencies have been operating with PTC for several years, research is needed to examine and document how PTC has affected passenger rail safety and how PTC-related infrastructure, data, and workforce capabilities can be leveraged to further enhance safety, security, and operational performance.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research is to document and quantify the safety, operational, and organizational impacts of PTC on passenger rail operations subject to the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, and to identify lessons learned, current practices, and benefits realized beyond statutory and regulatory minimum requirements.

RESEARCH PLAN: The TCRP is seeking proposals on how best to achieve the research objective. Proposers are expected to describe research plans that can realistically be accomplished within the constraints of available funds and subaward time. Proposals must present the proposers' current thinking in sufficient detail to demonstrate their understanding of the issues and the soundness of their approach to meeting the research objective.

The research, at a minimum, shall: (1) Identify and summarize existing literature, industry practices, and other relevant resources on the operational safety of PTC. (2) Document the current state of PTC implementation, use, and maintenance across passenger rail agencies. (3) Assess the realized benefits of PTC implementation on passenger rail safety, including operations involving shared-use corridors, passenger operators hosting freight tenants, and passenger operators operating on freight-owned infrastructure.
(4) Quantify, to the extent practical, the safety benefits attributable to PTC systems using available industry data and performance measures. (5) Identify innovative applications of PTC-related infrastructure, data, technologies, and workforce capabilities that extend beyond statutory and regulatory minimum requirements and improve safety, security, and operational efficiency. (6) Examine PTC operating, maintenance, and lifecycle costs to determine eligibility for capitalization or federal funding assistance and identify any relevant statutory, regulatory, or policy considerations.
Proposers are encouraged to identify innovative approaches for collecting information (e.g., stakeholder interviews, focus groups, workshops, surveys, peer exchanges) and for presenting research findings (e.g., case studies, implementation guidance, checklists, fact sheets, other practitioner-oriented tools).

The research plan shall be divided into tasks that detail the work proposed. The research plan shall describe appropriate deliverables (which also represent key project milestones), including, at a minimum: (1) An amplified research plan that responds to comments provided by the project panel at the subawardee selection meeting. (2) An interim report and panel meeting. The interim report should include the analyses and results of completed tasks, an update of the remaining tasks, and a detailed outline of the final research product(s). The panel meeting will occur after the panel review of the interim report. The interim report and panel meeting should occur after the expenditure of no more than 40 percent of the project budget. (3) Final deliverables. The final deliverables should include a conduct of research report documenting the entire research effort. (4) A technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products” (see Important item IV). (5) A slide deck to be used in webinars that presents the research findings and conclusions.
The research team may include additional deliverables and additional panel meetings via teleconference in the research plan. The research plan shall have a schedule for the project that includes 1 month for panel review of the interim report and 3 months for panel review of the draft final report and for the research team's revision of the draft final report.

IMPORTANT: (1) The brochure Information and Instructions for Preparing Proposals for the Transportation Research Board’s Cooperative Research Programs includes extensive guidance on the preparation of acceptable proposals for submission to CRP. Revisions to these instructions are highlighted in yellow within that document. (2) Proposals will be rejected if any of the proposed research team members work for organizations represented on the project panel. The panel roster for this project can be found here. Proposers may not contact panel members directly; this roster is provided solely for the purpose of avoiding potential conflicts of interest. (3) The text of the final deliverable is expected to be publication ready when it is submitted. It is strongly recommended that the research team include the expertise of a technical editor as early in the project timeline as possible. See Appendix F of the Procedural Manual for Subawardees Conducting Research in the Transportation Research Board’s Cooperative Research Program for technical editing standards expected in final deliverables. (4) The required technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products” should (a) provide recommendations on how to best put the research findings/products into practice; (b) identify possible institutions that might take leadership in applying the research findings/products; (c) identify issues affecting potential implementation of the findings/products and recommend possible actions to address these issues; and (d) recommend methods of identifying and measuring the impacts associated with implementation of the findings/products. Implementation of these recommendations is not part of the research project and, if warranted, details of these actions will be developed and implemented in future efforts. (5) The National Academies have an ethical and legal obligation to provide proper attribution whenever material from other sources is included in its reports, online postings, and other publications and products. TRB will review all Cooperative Research Programs draft final deliverables using the software iThenticate for potential plagiarism. If plagiarized text appears in the draft final deliverable, the research team will be required to make revisions and the opportunity to submit future proposals may be affected. 

Proposals must be uploaded via this link: https://www.dropbox.com/request/v0aoa3vrj1pnawlnz17t 
Proposals are due not later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on 8/18/2026.
This is a firm deadline, and extensions are not granted. In order to be considered for award, the agency's proposal must be in our offices not later than the deadline shown, or the proposal will be rejected.

General Notes: (1) Regarding non-discrimination practices and policies, proposers are required to comply with applicable federal and state laws and regulations (including without limitation, federal civil rights laws, regulations, and requirements) and follow applicable federal guidance, except as the Federal Government determines otherwise in writing. Without limitation of the foregoing, proposers agree to prohibit discrimination as prescribed by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (2) The essential features required in a proposal for research are detailed in the current brochure entitled "Information and Instructions for Preparing Proposals". Proposals must be prepared according to this document, and attention is directed specifically to Section IV for mandatory requirements. Proposals that do not conform with these requirements will be rejected. (3) The total funds available are made known in the project statement, and line items of the budget are examined to determine the reasonableness of the allocation of funds to the various tasks. If the proposed total cost exceeds the funds available, the proposal is rejected. (4) All proposals become the property of the Transportation Research Board. Final disposition will be made according to the policies thereof, including the right to reject all proposals.
(5) Potential proposers should understand that follow-on activities for this project may be carried out through either a contract amendment modifying the scope of work with additional time and funds, or through a new contract (via sole source, full, or restrictive competition).]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:06:14 GMT</pubDate>
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      <title>International Workshop on High-Speed Rail Planning and Operations</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1372372</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The research teams lead by Dr. Xuesong Zhou, Dr. Mikhail Chester at Arizona State University, and Dr. Lei Zhang at the University of Maryland plan to host an International Conference on High-speed Rail Planning and Operations that aims to bring together leading researchers and practitioners from across different countries and different areas of study, to present their research and perspectives on important aspects of high-speed rail, such as economic and accessibility impacts, national-level multi-modal transportation planning analysis,  operations research and advanced train control systems. The conference will be of interest to audiences from academia, agencies (e.g. US Department of Transportation (DOT), state DOTS and highway administrations and large metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs)) and rail industrial partners, and to the transportation planning and modeling audiences in general.   The conference will have invited speakers from China, Japan, Denmark as well as private-sector rail companies in the united states, such as CSX and BNSF, to present their perspectives on how to address challenges in planning, building and operating high-speed rail in the United States, and how to create an informed/skilled workforce that can aid policy makers on the role of high speed rail (HSR) in the context of the current inter-city multimodal transportation system.   The conference will be held in cooperation with Transportation Research Board, INFORMS Railway Application Section, and possibly international leading rail research institutes such as State Key Lab of Rail Traffic Control &amp; Safety at Beijing Jiaotong University, China.   The conference will be held at the Arizona State University Campus, located in the Phoenix metropolitan area between October 25-27, 2015. Phoenix is accessible via major airlines.    In recent years, high-speed rail (HSR) has been offered as a sustainable (energy and environment) mass transit alternative to the overworked highways. Multiple economic and demographic indicators (such as population and fuel cost) project that high-speed rail will grow in importance in the United States and Canada for corridors of less than 300 miles. North America lags behind other nations in high speed rail operating mileage and, consequently, lags behind in education programs. Many universities in the United States have recognized the need to create an informed/skilled workforce that can aid policy makers on the role of HSR in the context of the current inter-city multimodal transportation system. Despite the proactive efforts from many planners and researchers, the challenge for the university/rail industrial communities in supporting the education and training of HSR students in the United States is understanding and meeting North American requirements. It must be recognized that the majority of technical expertise in high speed rail originates in Europe and East Asia. Since the geography and rail freight traffic mix of North American differ significantly from that of these regions, many of these methods and assumptions need to be modified for North American applications.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2015 09:26:11 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1372372</guid>
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      <title>Positive Train Control for Commuter Rail</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1258250</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) provides commuter rail service in the Los Angeles region. SCRRA is implementing an interoperable Positive Train Control (PTC) system on all of its line segments where passenger operations are conducted. The project will design, furnish and install, test and commission a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) certified system at the same pace as the BNSF, UPRR and Amtrak Southern California PTC deployments targeted for December 31, 2012. The University of Southern California (USC), in partnership with Rail Safety Consulting LLC (RSC), and with the support of the SCRRA, will execute a research study of the implementation of this new PTC system. The goal of this research is to evaluate and promote the development of new technologies that will improve the safety and efficiency of rail transit system operation. The research project will focus on the safety and reliability of PTC technology in the commuter rail operating environment, and on developing recommendations concerning best practices in the implementation of PTC systems. The research will include the evaluation of current PTC technology; the SCRRA PTC system; the documentation of related implementation issues; and will identify the needs for further research in Rail Transit Signal and Control Systems (RTSCS) for commuter rail operations relating to PTC objectives.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:56:50 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1258250</guid>
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    <item>
      <title>Positive Train Control (PTC) for Commuter and Regional Rail Systems</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1233974</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This project will conduct a technical and safety evaluation of a new Positive Train Control (PTC) system to be deployed by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which provides commuter rail service in the Los Angeles region. It includes an evaluation of current PTC technology, documentation of implementation issues, and identification of needs for further research in Rail Transit Signal and Control Systems for commuter and regional rail operations. The final report will assess development and implementation of PTC at a regional commuter rail system, evaluate the safety and reliability of the PTC system, document lessons learned, and recommend best practices in implementation of PTC systems.]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jan 2013 15:04:45 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1233974</guid>
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