Railway Track & Structures - August 2008 - (Page 43)

2005, with Amtrak spending just over three years in preparing and deploying the system and customizing it. Engineering recognized the need for software to supply the full-system approach. Amtrak started reviewing six or seven software companies, then narrowed the list down to three and gave them some assignments to see how they would accommodate the railroad’s linear environment. That took about six months, then there was approximately a year on overall design. Actual implementation started in 2006, with labor reporting. In 2007, EAM began track inspection compliance, then started with c&s. “We completed track inspection compliance at the beginning of 2008, and we’re now implementing the advanced track compliance, which would be a paperless and full capture of measurements in the next phase,” Ebersohn said. “Within Amtrak engineering, the organization was willing to let us do basics first, to build a structured approach,” Broughton said. “We knew the urgency, we were aware that information management was very important, but we wanted to make sure that the quality is there in everything we do and everything we deliver. “As an example, when we talked about inspection compliance, the FRA mandates how our track department and our c&s department do their work,” he noted. “C&S and track are heavily regulated by the FRA. And Amtrak has internal regulations that are even more strict than those of the FRA at times. We wanted to make sure that we were doing enforcing and distributing information that would make those inspections and tests successful. Basic, advanced implementation “We broke our implementation into basic and advanced,” Broughton said. “During the basic implementation, we did a full survey of assets and we built structured job plans that detailed all of the actions that were to take place. We built a responsibility matrix so we would know who’s responsible for performance and review and we implemented that throughout the corridor. “What we did not do during the basic phase was capture the actual measurements,” he explained. “That is the next phase, where we go full paperless on inspection compliance for track. We’re developing this right now where we will start leveraging the measurements themselves and evaluating the conditions based on those measurements.” Broughton added: “Throughout the corridor, all track inspectors are using the system. We’re currently implementing the system for c&s. We’re finished c&s work in Washington and in Baltimore now and our hope is that very quickly we can deploy the EAM for c&s throughout the corridor. We have started deploying track compliance in the central division and timekeeping management is also being deployed in the central division.” Amtrak is sharing its experience with its EAM system with other railroads, including BNSF, CSX Transportation and Union Pacific. www.rtands.com Railway Track & Structures August 2008 43 http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - August 2008

Railway Track & Structures - August 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Wish List: What Chief Engineers Really Want in M/W Machinery Keeping Ballast in Shape Amtrak Turns to Sophisticated System to Manage NEC Assets Supplier Profiles Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - August 2008

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