REBOOTING.

Positive train control is coming to the Burlington Racetrack.  As a consequence, it will take longer to turn a train.

Under [positive train control] the crew of a train must initialize the system before each individual run. This includes entering information about the size and makeup of the train (because its weight affects its stopping distance) and any other details about conditions along the route (such as work zones or speed restrictions) that could affect the safe operation of the train. The initialization process is expected to take about six minutes.

On the current BNSF schedule there are about 30 instances in which a train completes a run and turns around to start a new one in less than 10 minutes, typically at the ends of the line but occasionally mid-route. In those 10 minutes, the engineer must move from the cab car to the locomotive or vice versa, and the crew must clear the train, perform a brake test and conduct a job briefing. With the added task of initializing the PTC system, these “flips” are expected to take 12 to 15 minutes, so the schedule of many trains must be adjusted for increased turn times, and those changes, in turn, will affect nearly all other trains on the schedule.

During the busiest hours on the line, those flipping trains must move smartly, generally completing a run from Chicago, then crossing from the northerly main track to the southerly main track to return to Chicago to become another train.  Commuters can load fairly expeditiously in Chicago.  In the morning, though, often that flipping train becomes a local train for a few stops, and if it's taking longer to turn back at Congress Park or Downers Grove, that's going to get in the way of a train coming from farther west that would like to get onto the center track to run express into Union Station.  Under the new dispensation, there will be an additional Naperville Zephyr.