Walk into any railroad facility and you are sure to see a sign with a numerical count that tracks the number of days worked without a lost time accident. Go to a dispatch center and you may also see a sign that tracks the number of days without a track authority violation.
Mistakes happen. But when a mistake is made with a track authority which results in a rail worker or equipment being somewhere unexpected, the outcome can be disastrous.
There were 995 registered rail fatalities and almost 6,700 non-fatal injuries on railroads in the US in 2023, up from 907 fatalities and just over 6,500 injuries in 2022 [1]. While the Association of American Railroads (AAR) lauds the past decade as the safest ever for rail, pointing to a 71% decline in on-duty fatalities for all railroads since 2000 [2], human error continues to be one of the leading causes of trackside accidents.
Rail Safety and Dispatch
Miscommunication, misinterpretation and data entry errors compromise rail safety and efficiency.
In railroad dispatch systems, track authorities are typically requested and granted over radio or a phone call, with a strict process of writing down and reading back each data item. The process requires both the Maintenance of Way (MOW) employee and the dispatcher to be available at the same time. However, as dispatchers typically handle multiple tasks simultaneously, it’s common for calls to be stacked on hold, and there may be background noise at either end of a call, sometimes numbers and names are misheard or written down incorrectly.
Digitalization of this process can significantly reduce the risk of human error and improve rail worker safety.
How does a mobile app prevent accidents?
Consider what happens when you replace manual processes with a mobile app.
Submitting and processing a track authority request digitally enables the field employee to submit a request at their convenience, and the dispatcher to process it at his or her convenience.
A mobile app facilitates clearly and accurately selecting the specific limits of the authority, whether mile posts or pre-defined named stations, as well as all other aspects of the authority.
The requestor enters the details on the app and can clearly see what they have selected. When the dispatcher reviews the request, they don’t have to re-enter the information, so the risk of a data entry mistake is greatly reduced.
If changes need to be made – the limits need to be modified or bulletins need to be added – they will not go into effect until both parties individually review and confirm them.
Both the MOW employee and the dispatcher are working with the same data displayed in front of them – and the track authority cannot be issued until both have confirmed.
No misheard or misinterpreted information, no writing down something incorrectly. This is how a mobile application can improve rail safety and save lives.
The Tracsis DTW Mobile App
At Tracsis, we’ve developed the Digital Track Warrant (DTW) mobile app to provide rail workers with securely authenticated approval to access safe track points.
The DTW mobile app is used by field personnel that are working trackside as part of a maintenance crew, or onboard as part of a locomotive crew. The mobile app is used to request and manage track authorities and track bulletins, using a digital data exchange process between the app and the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system used by the dispatcher.
The benefits of the DTW mobile app include:
Increased rail worker protection and improved safety culture
Better accuracy and accountability through a digital log of all transactions
Rail crews save time by requesting track authorities at their own convenience
Assurance through dispatchers and rail workers working from the same information
Increased operational efficiencies and a reduction in mistakes caused by human error
Connects through a secure cloud service to provide a digital interface to an on-premises or cloud-hosted dispatch system
The short line railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming is among the businesses that have adopted this technology; G&W has integrated our mobile app into authority processes on the majority of their railroads. The new digital process has drastically reduced the amount of time required to process authority requests while improving the accuracy, resulting in a safer operation.
Find out more about how our mobile app works: download the brochure.
Tracsis is the leading provider of software-based rail technology solutions, trusted by railroads in North America including Class I, passenger and short line operators.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/204569/rail-accidents-in-the-us/
[2] https://www.aar.org/news/fra-2023-data-affirms-rails-strong-sustained-safety-record/#
