FORT WORTH - Federal regulators have given BNSF Railway the green light to begin using a computerized system that warns train operators of hazards and can automatically apply the brakes.
Joseph R. Boardman, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, called it "the beginning of a new era of rail safety."
The agency gave BNSF permission Monday to begin using the electronic train-management systems on parts of its network.
BNSF said the system would use global positioning and relay information such as speed limits and switch positions to a computer screen inside the locomotive cab. The computer will send warnings to the crew and start braking if the crew doesn't respond correctly.
The freight railroad has been testing the electronic system on a 135-mile stretch of track in Illinois since October 2004.
With a waiver from the railroad agency, BNSF and Wabtec Corp. had installed the system on 50 locomotives that operated between Beardstown and Centralia, Ill.
This spring, BNSF expects to begin using the system on a 300-mile corridor between Fort Worth and Arkansas City, Kan., over track it shares with Union Pacific Corp. freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains.
BNSF, a unit of Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe, must meet conditions set by regulators before it can install the train-management system on other parts of its network. The company said most of the conditions cover record keeping, operations testing and reporting.
So-called "positive train control" systems like the one BNSF has been testing are seen by advocates as a way to prevent speed-related derailments and collisions, such as a 2004 accident in Macdona, about 20 miles southwest of San Antonio. A Union Pacific train traveling 45 mph failed to stop at a siding and hit a BNSF train, causing a tank car to leak chlorine. Three people died.
Boardman testified to Congress last summer that such systems, on top of existing controls, are an affordable way to improve safety.
BNSF Chairman and Chief Executive Matthew Rose called Monday's approval of BNSF's plan to use an electronic system a significant safety milestone for the rail industry.
Three Amarillo residents were killed Dec. 30 near a railroad crossing on Georgia Street south of Hollywood Road. The train was traveling at 61 mph, below the federal speed limit of 70.
BNSF operates on 32,000 miles of track in 28 states and two Canadian provinces.