MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING

Note that a current list of members with email addresses is provided as Attachment 1. Members should contact Patricia Gerdon of IEEE Standards (FAX 732 562-1571 or email p.gerdon@ieee.org) with any corrections to this list or to their conventional address, phone or fax. Please do not contact the Chair. Since we are now doing electronic balloting it is essential Tricia Gerdon have your current email address.

Note: Action Items assigned to committee members are shown in bold italics.

2. Agenda

The agenda for the meeting was as follows:

June 4

8:30-9AM Continental Breakfast

9AM-9:05AM Introductions

9:05-9:30 AM Housekeeping

Minutes of Miami meeting

Dinner & Tour Logistics

Meeting time and place, next meeting

Website - Tom Sullivan

Access to Old Draft Standards on Web

Reminder to Make Timely Postings

Dissemination of RTVISC Standards - Lou Sanders

9:30-10:20AM Coordination

APTA Standards initiatives - Dave Phelps

APTA Procurement Task Force - Dave Phelps

LonMark Interoperability Assoc. - Tom Sullivan

FRA & Positive Train Control -

FRA Event Recorder NPRM -

APTA Rolling Stock Tech. Forum

ASME Rail Standards - Chair

ASHRAE Proposal - Chair

ITS APTS Committee - Lou Sanders

APTA Power Signals & Comm. Tech Forum - Lou Sanders

10 Minute Break

10:30 - Noon IEC TC9 Developments - Chair

Access to IEC TC9 Documents on Web

RTVISC Position re: IEC 9/612/NP Rail C&C Standard

New TC9 WG39, APM Standards Kickoff Meeting

Definition of Automated People Mover

US/Canadian IEC Involvement

Noon - 1PM Lunch (brought in)

1:1:30PM TTCI ATC Testing Program - John Leary

1:30-3PM Report of OCS Task Force - Paul White & Peter Bartek

Interface with APTA Power/Signal/Comm Technical Forum

Interface with AREMA Chapter 33

10 Minute Break

3:10-3:45PM WG9 Report - Date Elements - Fred Woolsey

Status of Standard

Communications Protocol Gateway Project Developments

3:45-4PM Wayside Protocol Standard Status

4-5PM WG3 Maintenance and Diagnostics Review/Report - Rob McHugh

Evening - Dutch Treat Pizza Dinner

June 5^th

8-8:30AM Continental Breakfast Served

8:30-9AM Status of WG10 Battery Standard Ballot- Stan Kwa

9-10:30 AM Other Working Group Reports

WG2 CBTC Graphical user Interface - Alan Rumsey

WG2B Wayside Environmental - Harold Gillen

WG11 Electrical/Electronic Control - Jim Dietz

WG12 Software Documentation - Rick Mazur

WG14 Highway Rail Interface -

10:30AM-Noon Initial Line X Line Review of NiCad Battery Standard - Alex Sinyak

12noon - 1PM Lunch (On your Own)

1PM - 3:30PM Complete Line by Line Review of NiCad Battery Standard

3:30-4 PM Committee Policies and Procedures

2 Person per Organization Policy

IEEE SA Audit Recommendations

4 PM Meeting Adjourned, Leave for R143 Tour

3. Housekeeping

Minutes. Minutes of the Miami FL meeting (February 12-13, 2001) were approved by the committee without changes.

Next Meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting will be held September 19-20, 2001 in or around San Francisco. Tom Sullivan and Peter Bartek will help with arrangements. The agenda will include resolution of results from ballot of WG10 Battery Physical Standards and completion of committee review of WG13 NiCad Battery Standard.

Internet. Our website is maintained by Tom Sullivan at: http://www.tsd.org

Tom's site is directly linked to the IEEE site where password protected draft standards reside because of copyright concerns. The user name and password for accessing draft standards are "transit" and "railway". Working group leaders posting standards to the web should title them DS-P14XX.DOC Email attachments to Tom for posting may now be sent in either Word 6.0/95 or Word 97. Tom recommends HTML for all postings except draft standards which should be in DOC format.

We also have an IEEE email mailing list: stds-railtransit@ieee.org

The current list of members on the list is shown in Attachment 2. If you are not yet on the list, please send an email message to majordomo@majordomo.ieee.org The subject line should be "Subscribe" leave "Copies" blank. The main message should say only "subscribe stds-railtransit" followed by your email address. Do not put anything else in the message. This will add you to the address list to automatically receive committee announcements. If your email address is on the list but is not correct do the following. Send an email message to majordomo@majordomo.ieee.org The subject line should be "Change Subscribe" Leave "Copies" blank. The message should have two lines. The first line should say "unsubscribe stds-railtransit" followed by the incorrect email address. The second line should say "subscribe stds-railtransit" followed by the correct email address. Only you can maintain your address correct in this system which is self maintaining. You are the only one who can remove the incorrect address! We tend to use the IEEE email list sparingly and only for situations where we must rapidly contact members so you will not be overly burdened with email messages if you subscribe.

IEEE Standards Process. The most up to date list of training information for standards developers and information on the IEEE standards process is found at http://standards.ieee.org/faqs/ltpres.html Presentations address Project Authorization Requests, Balloting, etc. A style template can be downloaded from http://standards.ieee.org/resources/spasystem/index/html

Progress Report by Chair. Chair McGean announced that IEEE Editor Andy Ickowicz is presently handling publishing the Environmental Standard, IEEE 1478. It has been delayed by the need to improve the quality of the PDF formatted former MIL Std. 810E incorporated in the standard. Publication is estimated to be the end of June. The status of all standards activities are provided in Attachments 3 and 4.

4. Coordination

New APTA Standards Initiatives. (Report by Dave Phelps) APTA standards efforts are being launched in five areas. ASME will address Vehicle Crashworthiness. The other four areas are grade crossings, vehicle maintenance and inspection, fixed facility maintenance and operating standards. The efforts have been launched and are now underway. Close coordination with IEEE and ASME efforts is being maintained. It would be appreciated if members would email Chair McGean at t.j.mcgean@ieee.org of instances they observe where our IEEE standards are being cited.

LonMark Interoperability Association. (report by Tom Sullivan) The LIA will meet in conjunction with our San Francisco meeting on September 18^th.

OMG Website. Bob diSilvestro has organized a website to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of CORBA, DCOM, and the TCIP approach to message sets. The URL is www.ieee-omg.org A user name and password are required which can be obtained from Bob diSilvestro at disilvestro_bob@adtranzna.com.

IEC Issues. The IEC TC9 committee has a new work item, 9/612/NP Railway Applications - Urban Guided Transport Management and Command/Control systems. On motion of Claude Gabriel seconded by Fred Perelstein the committee unanimously delegated to Alan Rumsey's WG2 working group responsibility for determining the IEEE RTVISC position. Alan will forward to position to McGean who will send it to Lou Sanders and George Prtistach as a recommended US vote. We were advised that the Canadian Technical Advisor to IEC TC9 is Christian Girard and that Canadians should conveny their recommended positions to him. McGean advised that IEC TC9 has decided to form an Automated People Mover Standards Working Group 39 which has its kickoff meeting in Paris on June 21-22, 2001. Sam Lott, President of JKH Mobility will represent the United States at this meeting. It appears that Jim Fletcher of JKH Mobility will be the US WG39 representative. McGean urged the Canadians to also attend the meeting and appoint a permanent representative.

McGean advised that IEC TC9 has asked that IEEE and the ASCE APM Standards Committee agree with IEC on the definition of the difference between an automated metro and an automated people mover. Pierre Zuber suggested a distinction based on size and speed of the vehicle and structural strength. Others suggested a distinction based upon the application, e.g whether it is used in an areawide metropolitan transit network or in an activity center. McGean asked members to email him their views. At our September meeting we will discuss this and adopt a committee position. Alan Rumsey was also asked to bring this up at his WG2 meeting on June 5^th.

McGean noted that the ASCE Automated People Mover Standard 21-96, Part 1 comes up for revision next year, presenting an opportunity for developing a joint driverless C&C standard with IEEE 1474's working group. Alan Rumsey agreed to discuss this with his working group to get their views

The following information was provided on how to access IEC TC9 documents:

Go to http://www.iec.ch/dashbd-e.htm

NOTE: This will be directly linked from www.tsd.org

Under Committee or Subcommittee write in "TC9"

You will get the IEC TC9 Dashboard. Click on "circulated in the last 12 months". You will get a listing of all documents from IEC TC9 in the last year. To download a document you will need a password and user name.

These are: User Name: us-tr-ge

Password: Gerdo1

THESE ARE UPPER/LOWER CASE SENSITIVE!!!

Regulations and Positive Train Control. (Report by John LaForce) The proposed NPRM for use of processor based systems has still not been released for public comment. The new administration has all new regulations on hold now so it will be a while before anything is released. Complete minutes of RSAC meetings are on the Safetran website, www.safetran.com

FRA Event Recorders. Chair McGean sent a letter to the FRA suggesting their planned NPRM for event recorders take note of IEEE 1482.1. McGean has had no response to his letter. A new NPRM has been sent to RSAC and continues to use a different crashworthiness requirement. Apparently, it is felt the FRA requirement is about twice as stringent as IEEE's and that is desired. The NPRM has not yet been publicly released and will be delayed by the change in Administrations

ASME Developments. (Report by Tom McGean) The RT-1 4^th draft (light rail crashworthiness chaired by Stan Canjea) was partially reviewed during a meeting in March in Atlanta. Significant comments arose which required postponement of an industry review. An in depth review with LTK is scheduled for June to resolve these issues. It is planned to send a 5^th draft out in July and take the matter up at a full committee meeting in September. After that, industry review is expected to take another six months. The RT-2 Standard (rapid rail structural led by Keith Falk) is also progressing well. That group met at SEPTA and a team has been formed to review load requirements. The next RT-2 meeting is planned for July.

ASHRAE Standard. NYCT has requested a car air conditioning standard be undertaken and it has been decided this should be done through ASHRAE. A proposal has been submitted to ASHRAE with APTA endorsement and goes before the ASHRAE Board for approval on June 23^rd. Anyone interested in the HVAC standard should email Tom McGean at t.j.mcgean@ieee.org as the working group is now being formed.

APTA Rolling Stock Technical Forum (Formerly APTA Rolling Stock Committee). (Report by Dave Phelps). A Fleet Roster for Commuter Rail has been put out and is available in both CD ROM and hard copy (the latter is the size of the Manhattan telephone book so CD ROM is advised!) It will be "unveiled" at the Boston APTA Rail Conference.

ITS/APTA Advanced Public Transit Systems Rail Subcommittee. No report this meeting.

APTA Power, Signal & Communications Technical Forum. On June 10^th, at 10AM, the APTA Power, Signal & Communications Technical Forum will be meeting at APTA. There is also a full day meeting on Thursday, June 14^th.

APTA Procurement Task Force (Robert Brownstein and Paul Jamieson). Paul Jamieson submitted the following written report: "Over the past two years, key leaders in different segments of the transit industry have identified procurement as a major priority issue for their industry segments. The issues that need to be addressed are some of the deep-rooted problems associated with current procurement practices and the need for a healthier business climate for industry manufacturers and suppliers. APTA has established a Task Force to address these issues. The current committee consists of 6-public sector, 6-industry sector, 1-small business, 1-standard setting group and 1-FTA member. The co-chairs are Paul Skoutelas – Port Authority of Allegheny County and Robert Brownstein – Booz Allen & Hamilton. The standard setting member is Paul Jamieson. The first meeting will be held at the APTA Rail Transit Conference in Boston on June 12th."

Robert Brownstein visited our meeting to discuss the new APTA Procurement Task Force. He noted that APTA business members proposed such a task force and identified major procurement issues which needed to be addressed. These included low profit margins, restraints on innovation, customized products, refusal of some companies to sell to some or all transit agencies, artificially high prices, substandard products, and the adversarial relationship which is all too common. The Task Force includes General Managers, Suppliers, attorneys, and FTA. The possibility of FTA incentives to those who use the new terms and conditions is being considered. Those with questions about the new task force were invited to email Robert Brownstein at brownstein_robert@bah.com

Brownstein also noted he had been at the TOPS committee meeting last week and that it appears APTA will take the role of coordinating body for transit standards. He will be giving a presentation on our committee's activities to the rail CEO's next week in Boston. It is hoped that a joint TCRP, APTA, FTA financing arrangement can be agreed upon to continue support of our standards efforts.

5. Other Business

TTCI Signaling Study. John Leary discussed TTCI's ongoing review of industry needs for off-site signaling testing. The presentation he gave along with the survey being conducted will be placed on our website. Persons are invited to respond to the survey. In response to member questions John noted TTCI does not have tunnels on site for testing signal performance in tunnels. He also noted no broken rail detection work was now being done.

Overhead Contact System (OCS) Standards. Paul White gave the report of the OCS Task Force. The presentation is located on our website under the OCS Subcommittee. The group met in Washington DC during May. Attendance was excellent and close to 60 persons have indicated interest. At the meeting it was agreed to recommend five new standards in the areas of 1) Pantograph Performance Requirements 2) Grounding and Lightning Protection 3) Insulation Levels for Overhead Contact Systems 4) Supporting Structures and 5) Recommended Practice for OCS Construction and Maintenance. Paul gave the proposed title, purpose and scope for each of these standards. There are interfaces with both AREMA and APTA standards activities that need to be carefully coordinated. McGean and Bartek will be meeting with AREMA members on Tuesday evening (June 5^th) to discuss that interface. Discussions with APTA should be possible during the rail meeting in Boston.

It was moved and unanimously approved that the OCS Task Force be established as a RTVISC subcommittee. McGean appointed Paul White as chair and Peter Bartek as Vice Chair. Subcommittee members will be invited to sit in on the full committee meeting on September 18^th. The second day, the OCS subcommittee will meet separately, but also in San Francisco. At the September meeting the OCS Subcommittee is tasked to 1) present evidence of adequate coordination with AREMA and APTA and agreement as to areas of responsibility and 2) provide final title, purpose and scope for activities requiring a PAR which the subcommittee wishes to undertake.

Information Dissemination. All eight of our published standards (including IEEE 11) have been bundled into a Vehicular Technology Standards Subscription which it will be possible to purchase online through IEEE. This subscription gives you a license for online access to any of these standards at no extra charge for the period of one year including the right to download and print them for your own use. The license fee ranges from $150/year for a single user to $1500 a year for an entire "enterprise". Go to http://standards.ieee.org/catalog/olis/licenses/licenses.html to obtain a license. In addition packets of eight standards have been mailed to RTVISC members. McGean is to check with Lou Sanders on whether the Event Recorder, IEEE Std 1482.1, has been disseminated to everyone. Apparently the original packet of standards did not include this one.

Non-Safety Critical Train/Wayside Communications. The Committee heard a presentation by Jerry Graham of ARINC recommending that we concentrate on the lower layers or protocol and not the data elements. George Hacken and Wilson Milian of NYCT discussed that agency's plans and concurred with Jerry's suggestion that we should stress the protocol area. They also stressed the importance of the noise environment in selecting a protocol. Jerry Graham agreed to chair a working group in this area and prepare a Title, Purpose and Scope for a standard to be reviewed at the September meeting.

Committee Policy and Procedures. Changes requested by the IEEE in our policy and procedures based on an audit were discussed. It was agreed to add a scope as well as sections on appeals and interpretations recommended by the IEEE. It was also agreed to revise the section on precedence in accord with the IEEE suggestions. Finally, in view of the consolidation going on in our industry it was agreed to add in Section 4.0, wording permitting organizations to designate alternate voting members. McGean will confirm with IEEE staff that this is acceptable. On motion of Dave Phelps seconded by George

Achakji, the new policy and procedures were unanimously approved. A copy of the approved policy and procedures with the changes highlighted is attached to these minutes as Attachment 5.

6. Working Group Reports

(To facilitate followup by working group leaders activities have been organized by working group even though the agenda does not always follow this approach at the actual meeting. Also, where the group has published its standard and is inactive, no report is provided.)

Definitions. Paul Jamieson Chair. A policy statement drafted by the Chair to reflect the sense of the committee on definitions is given below:

It is committee policy to use IEEE Dictionary definitions if at all possible. Further, once any definition has been balloted and accepted for use in any standard sponsored by the IEEE Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee it shall be binding for all other standards sponsored by the committee unless it can be shown to be clearly inappropriate. If neither the IEEE Dictionary nor a RTVISC balloted standard provides a suitable definition, then the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Lexicon should be consulted for a suitable definition.. Next, standards sponsored by the ASME Rail Transit Standards Committee should be consulted. Definitions which have been balloted and accepted for any standard sponsored by the ASME Rail Transit Standards Committee shall be also binding for all IEEE RTVISC standards unless there is a different existing IEEE definition or they can be shown to be clearly inapplicable. If none of these sources produce a suitable definition, the TRB Glossary should be consulted . It should be noted that ASME and TRB Glossary definitions are not presently IEEE definitions. Thus, they should be provided in the definitions section of the IEEE standard so they can be balloted and adopted as an IEEE definition. Only when all of the above approaches has failed should a working group coin its own original definition. Since it is intended that all working groups of both IEEE RTVISC and ASME RTSC use common definitions, Working group chairs should be careful when reviewing standards prepared by other working groups, to be sure the other group's definitions will be suitable for their standard also. Paul Jamieson chairs the Definitions working group for both the IEEE RTVISC and the ASME RTSC and maintains a database with all definitions which can be downloaded from our website at www.tsd.org.

All Working Groups were reminded to send Paul Jamieson copies of the definitions they are devising for their standards per the above policy.

WG2 (P1474.2) Communications Based Train Control Graphical User Interface, Alan Rumsey, Chair (Report by the Chair) It appears no activity is underway on the Environmental Wayside Standard. McGean and Rumsey will check with Harold Gillen on status. Work on IEEE P1474.2 (Standard for User Interface Requirements in Communications Based Train Control (CBTC) Systems) continues with good support, and steady progress is being made. The first working group meeting was hosted by US&S on April 27, 2000 in Pittsburgh (19 attendees). The meeting developed draft table of contents for the Proposed Standard. The second working group meeting hosted by NJ Transit on July 27, 2000 in Newark (23 attendees). This meeting rviewed/revised draft D1.0 of the Proposed Standard. The third working group meeting was hosted by GE Harris Harmon on November 2, 2000 in Blue Springs (17 attendees). This meeting reviewed/revised draft D2.0 of the Proposed Standard. The fourth working group meeting was hosted by APTA on February 22, in Washington D.C. This meeting reviewed/revised draft D3.0 of the Proposed Standard which is now posted on our website www.tsd.org The expectation is that standard should be ready for balloting by the end of 2001 early 2002. The next meeting will be at NYC Transit on June 6^th. It will revise/review Draft 4.0 and commence action for updating IEEE Std 1474.1. It will also take up the new IEC TC9 work item on C&C, the definition of an Automated People Mover, and possible coordination with the APM Standards Committee of the ASCE..

WG3 (P1482) Rail Vehicle Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems, Rob McHugh, Chair

The committee has 47 members consisting of 18 suppliers, 13 users and 16 general interest with all consultants and regulators included in this category. Since restarting this effort three meetings have been held, at San Francisco MUNI in September in Washington DC at APTA in December and most recently in New York in April. A matrix has been developed to reflect the hierarchical/modular nature of the maintenance and diagnostic system. It is organized by levels of complexity, the data transfer method, and the level of human interface/display. The draft is on our website and members are asked to send Rob McHugh their comments. The next meeting of the working group will be in Philadelphia June 7^th. They are planning to be ready for a line by line review at the September full committee meeting.

WG8 (P1478) Environmental Standards for Rail Transit Equipment, Chuck Elms, Chair. Chair McGean announced that IEEE Editor Andy Ickowicz is presently handling publishing the Environmental Standard, IEEE 1478. It has been delayed by the need to improve the quality of the PDF formatted former MIL Std. 810E incorporated in the standard. Publication is estimated to be the end of June.

WG9 Transit Communications Interface Profiles for Rail Transit Systems, Fred Woolsey. A draft of IEEE P1544 will be put on our website after the meeting. The Gateway project appears to have new life. New Jersey Transit has offered to use its Comet cars to demonstrate a gateway. The APTA Power & Signaling Tech Forum may sponsor the Gateway project. It will be taken up at the APTA rail meeting in Boston. (Previously they had agreed to do this). Suppliers have been located to supply the gateway (between LonWorks and the TCN train bus). Fred has prepared a Gateway spec. It will be put on the website annd members of WG9 or others are asked to give Fred their comments. Supporting material is on the WG9 website ftp://fwsbcon.com . A paper on the New Jersey project will be given at APTA in Boston.

WG10 Battery Standard, Stanley Kwa, Chair. Electronic Balloting. Sta Kwa's battery standard will be balloted electronically. This will be our first electronic ballot. Please be sure the IEEE has your correct email address. IEEE requires that the standard be posted on their website in PDF format. Stan Kwa has sent the final Word version ready to ballot to Tom McGean for final review and after Stan OK's any McGean changes, it will be sent to IEEE for review by the IEEE Editor. After the IEEE edit, Stan will then send the Word file to Dave Phelps and Chuck Elms who will each convert it to PDF format and send the converted file back to Stan. Stan will download and review/approve the PDF version and then send one of them to IEEE to put on their website.

With regard to Miami instructions to WG10, the working group disposed of them as follows:

1) Working group to try to further reduce height dimensions in Table 1. The height can not be reduced.

2) Working group to follow IEEE rules for references and bibliography. Done.

3) Paul Jamieson to check if any defintions are now in IEEE 100 and can be deleted and advise Stan Kwa. Waiting

4) Stan to do a search to be sure all abbreviations cited are actually referred to in text or annex. Done.

5) Instead of citing IEC 60623 in 4.2, spell out the applicable requirements. Done

6) Edit Table 1 to be in accord with IEEE format for Tables. Done

7) McGean to check if IEEE 100 belongs in references or bibliography and correct accordingly. (McGean to also check committee policy in prior standards on citing Urban Transportation Glossary of TRB.) To be done with edit

8) Stan Kwa to check APTA PRESS battery standard corrosion requirements to see if they would be useful. Changed "Battery interface terminal hardware shall be corrosion resistant" to "Acid/alkali-resisting lead covered, stainless steel or nickel-plated hardware shall be used for battery interface terminals to the vehicle cables."

9) McGean and Phelps to edit Introduction. Phelps done, McGean to do with his edit.

10) A better drawing for Battery Tray Envelope. Done

WG11 Electrical/Electronic Control Standard, Jim Dietz Chair. Most recent meeting in New York City. Next meeting June 20^th in Baltimore. Meeting after that at APTA in Washington DC August 8^thMeat of the standard is Section 4 (Design) and Section 5 (Test). Section 4 is 95% complete. Section 5 needs more work; it is about 60-70% complete. Committee has openings for users and suppliers. The Working Group will be bringing this standard for full committee review at the winter 2002 meeting.

WG12 Software Documentation Standard , Paul Jamieson, Chair. (Report by Rick Mazur) The working group has held meetings on February 27 & 28, 2001 at Safetrans and May 16 & 17 at LTK Engineering Services. The working group has been reviewing the available standards and creating outlines for each document to be included in the standard. The outlines will be posted in the near future on the WG12 portion if the RTVIS standards website. Comments to these outlines will be accepted and incorporated into the standard.

The documents to be addressed in the standard are:

Project Planning and Oversight Activities

SPMP – Software Project Management Plan

SQAP – Software Quality Assurance Plan

SCMP – Software Configuration Management Plan

SVVP – Software Verification and Validation Plan

SVVR - Software Verification and Validation Report

Software Items – Specific Documents

SRS – Software Requirements Specification

IRS – Interface Requirements Specification

SDD – Software Design Description

DBDD – Database Design Description

IDD – Interface Design Description

STP – Software Test Plan

STPr – Software Test Procedure

STR – Software Test Report

SRTM – Software Requirements Traceability Matrix

Software Release

SVD – Software Version Description

SUM – Software Users Manual

The next meeting will be held on August 14 & 15 at an East Coast location. The meeting will finalize the document outlines and make assignments for the actual standard drafting.

The full committee review is scheduled for the winter 2002 RTVISC meeting.

WG13 NiCad Battery Performance Standard, Alex Sinyak, Chair. At this meeting a line by line review was completed of all material except the annexes. The results of the review are in the draft appended to these minutes as Attachment 6. Members are asked to send any comments on this material to Alex. Specific written comments on the body of the standard will be taken up at the next meeting if they were not already discussed at this meeting. In addition, the annexes will be reviewed at the September meeting.

McGean will check with the IEEE editor if we can correct grammar in an existing IEEE definition. Members felt the definition for available capacity required commas to keep it form being ambiguous.

WG14 Highway Rail Intersection, Bill Petit, Chair. Following is a brief update on the status of the IEEE Interface Standard between the RR Subsystem and the Highway subsystem at a Highway Rail Intersection. (IEEE Draft Standard p1570). (Without the ITS lingo, this is the interface between the Crossing Controller/Predictor and the Traffic Signal Controller).

Version 3.0c of the draft standard is now available for working group review. The WG consists of AAR, AREMA Grade Crossing Committee, APTA, transit agencies, suppliers, Consultants, State Highway DOT folks, FRA, ITE, ITS folks, Labor (BRS) and Texas Transportation Institute (working on other related standards). Intention is for a final review in September with balloting starting at that point. Since this is a detailed technical standard, WG14I would like to consider having the WG ballot the standard.

The draft standard calls for using ATCS datagrams and addressing on the upper communication levels. Lower levels can consist of IP, RS-485, ATCS for networking; Ethernet or serial for data link; 10/100 Base T, RS-422 or RS-485 for physical. ATCS Addressing will generally be the responsibility of the railroads. A single unique ATCS address has been assigned to state DOT (one address for everybody) and a single unique address has also been assigned for non-ATCS railroads (e.g. transit authorities). ATCS Vital CRC's are used on all messaged defined as safety-critical.

Message Transfer consists of the following messages.

1. On a per second basis, The RR side sends a safety-critical message to the highway side. For EACH track at the crossing, a message is sent containing info on

· Whether or not the Warning System is Active (i.e. lights flashing)

· General System Health

· Train Presence Detection (whether or not motion has been detected)

· Island Occupancy

· Approach Direction

· Entrance Gate Status (present, up, down)

· &nb