Published in the October 12, 2018 edition.

WAKEFIELD — Crews will be working on the commuter rail tracks in town Monday night as the Mass. Department of Transportation and the MBTA install certain safeguards mandated by the federal government.

The overnight work will be within the right-of-way along the MBTA Haverhill commuter rail line between the Greenwood stop and the North Avenue depot as part of federally mandated Positive Train Control (PTC)
infrastructure installation, according to a release. Due to the equipment necessary to perform this work, lights and mild to moderate noise levels can be expected.

Work is scheduled to occur as necessary between approximately 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. This overnight is work necessary to avoid service interruptions by taking advantage of track time when the trains will not be operating.

As part of a federal mandate passed by Congress in 2008, the MBTA is installing Positive Train Control (PTC) technology across all commuter rail lines. The goal is to have all hardware installed by December 2018 and to have the PTC system fully operational by the end of 2020.

PTC can automatically reduce a train’s speed or even stop it to avoid a collision or derailment. It will improve safety and reduce human error on the commuter rail.

The MBTA’s PTC system is designed to prevent:

• Train-to-train collisions

• Derailments caused by high speed

• Trains speeding through work zones where crews are near the tracks

• Unexpected movement of trains through “open” switches

The system works through:

• On-board controls that monitor and regulate a train’s speed if the operator fails to

• Signals along the rail corridor that transmit safety data

• System-wide communications throughout the commuter rail network

• An upgraded, centralized dispatch for the network

This project impacts every element of the commuter rail system — the tracks on every line, hardware and software in the dispatch center, signal houses, antennae, radios and hardware on the train engines, and more.

The PTC project will improve every commuter rail passenger’s safety by reducing human error in a range of scenarios, including possible derailments and collisions.