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An Advanced Train Control System is a system of railway/railroad equipment designed to ensure safety by monitoring locomotive and train locations, providing analysis and reporting, automating track warrants, detecting blind spot and similar orders. ATCS specifications are published by the Association of American Railroads , and are designed to document the stated requirements of railway/railroad operational and technical professionals concerning ATCS hardware and software.
The basic principle behind ATCS is to provide a cost efficient, safe, modular, train control system with an open architecture. The primary goals of the system are to provide for
The primary ATCS functions are
The ATCS architecture consists of five major systems. Four of these systems are the information processing systems that reside at the central dispatch office , on-board locomotives , on-board work vehicles and in the field. These systems collect, process, and distribute data with minimal input from dispatchers, enginemen, and foremen. The fifth system and the ATCS keystone, is the modern data communications system, which ties the various information processing systems together and significantly reduces the need for voice communications.