MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING
RAIL TRANSIT VEHICLE INTERFACE STANDARDS COMMITTEE
June 17-18, 1998
O'Hare Hilton, Chicago, IL-----
(NOTE: ATTACHMENTS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THE WEBSITE VERSION OF THE MINUTES)
1. Attendance (See Attachment 1)
Note that a current list of members with addresses is
provided as Attachment 2. Members should contact Patricia Gerdon of IEEE Standards (FAX 732 562-1571 or email p.gerdon@ieee.org) with any corrections to this list.
Note: Action Items assigned to committee members are
shown in bold italics.
2. Agenda (See Attachment 3)
3. Housekeeping
Minutes. Minutes of the Irvine meeting (February 4-5, 1998) were approved by the committee without changes.
Next Meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting will be
held September 16-17 (or possibly 17-18), 1998 in Saint Louis. Lou Sanders will see if we can tie in with the same hotel being used for a meeting of the AAR that week. The agenda will include final review of the WG3 Event Recorder Standard, resolution of affirmative and negative ballot comments from WG1 Communications Protocols, initial review of WG6 Auxiliary Power and WG8, Environmental Standards, and decision on whether to give WG2 CBTC Performance Standards its own balloting authority.
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 and send them as attachments in Word 6.0/95. Tom Sullivan will provide instructions on how to transmit the files to all working group chairs. Tom will also add a new WG3B to cover the new Event Recorder Standard being developed by WG3.
We also have an IEEE email mailing list:
stds-railtransit@ieee.org
The current list of persons signed onto the list is provided as Attachment 4. If you are not yet on the list, please sign on using the simple instructions provided in Attachment 4. If you have an incorrect address on the list please "unsubscribe" and if necessary re"subscribe" according to the instructions. You are the only one who can remove the incorrect address!
Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. Tom McGean is putting together a session on standards for the January 1999 TRB meeting. Dave Phelps and Bob Anderson agreed to prepare papers on their standards activities. Tom McGean will contact Rolly King of the TRB New Systems and Technology Committee to arrange the session.
Gateway/TCN Demonstration Project. WG1, Communications Protocols, has recommended a Gateway/TCN Demonstration Project as being desirable to reduce the P1473 Standard to practice. A tentative project description and work statement is included as Attachment 5. The project would provide evidence that the TCN standard as written is sufficient and complete by developing a North American implementation, and would also develop the gateway between TCN and Echelon needed to make P1473 a reality. To move the project forward, we need letters of support from suppliers and transit agencies. Address them to Chair Tom McGean and be as explicit in terms of support as you are able. Sign them as high up the organizational ladder as you are able. Possible sources of funding are in the FTA Joint Partnership Program for Transit Innovation to be initiated this summer and alternatively as a rail project under the transit component of ITS
4. Coordination and New Standards Activities
ASME Developments. Stan Canjea's ASME Rail Transit Vehicle Standards Committee has been officially approved by the ASME to develop "standards for rail transit vehicles, mechanical systems and components and structural requirements", successfully achieving our two year goal of having a sister standards committee in the ASME. The first activity will be to develop a standard to define the minimum structural requirements for light rail vehicle bodies, using modern crash energy management principles. Those interested in participating in the LRV structural load project or in ASME rail standards in general should contact Stan (973 491 8859 FAX 973 491-8849, email cbopsxc@njtransit.state.nj.us ). The kickoff meeting will be held at New Jersey Transit on July 17, 1998.
In a related area, APTA's LRT Committee has formed an ad hoc group to review the possibility of standard light rail vehicle procurement specifications to reduce costs, and even make bids for the small number of cars sometimes required by LRV operators possible. Tom Walsh, General Manager of Tri-Met in Portland is leading the effort. During discussion it was noted that the California PUC has imposed a 2G buff load requirement, so it is important that they be involved in Stan Canjea's standards activity. A number of persons noted the difficulty regulatory groups such as the PUC have attending out of state meetings. Tom McGean was asked to investigate whether TRB travel money can be extended to such regulatory agencies, as well as transit authorities. He was also asked to give Dave Phelps a contact at the California PUC for transmittal to the APTA ad hoc group. It was also suggested that McGean send letters to regulatory agencies inviting them to attend meetings to help them obtain travel approvals.
Automated People Mover Standards. The Automated People Mover (APM) Standards Committee has asked our committee not to explicitly include APM's in our standards. Interface standards such as we are developing are not applicable to all types of APM's, especially the cable and belt driven varieties. By not mentioning APM's, it will permit the larger, conventional type APM systems which are like rail systems to use our standards, without imposing them on the smaller APM systems where they could be inappropriate. The committee agreed to follow this recommendation.
APTA Rolling Stock Committee. The APTA Rolling Stock Committee is being reorganized. Contact Dave Phelps at APTA (202 898 4085, FAX 202 898 4019, email dphelps@apta.com) if you would like to be involved. Paul Messina of NYCTA (914 896 3853 email 103205.3233@compuserve.com )is serving as vice chair.
ITS/APTA Advanced Public Transit Systems Rail Subcommittee. This new group is being formed to identify ITS related development needs of the rail transit industry and further their development. It will be headed by Tom Taylor of PB Systems (213 362 4769 FAX 213 362 3106, email taylorts@pbworld.com ) Contact Lou Sanders of APTA (202 898 4086 FAX 202 898 4019, email lsanders@apta.com ) if you are interested. This committee has indicated interest in the WG1 Gateway/TCN Demonstration Project and may be a way to help us obtain funds.
TCIP Program. Rob McHugh is chairing a WG9 working group to develop rail message object sets. Based on discussions with TCIP, it appears the best approach will be to institute his activity as an IEEE effort under our committee. It was moved by Bob Anderson, seconded, and unanimously agreed that, providing this is acceptable to Mark Norman of the ITE, Rob will prepare an IEEE PAR for the WG9 effort. Tom McGean will provide Rob the materials and instructions for preparing a PAR. Rob's effort will subsume the development of Passenger Information software standards by WG7 so that the P1477.1 effort in that area will not be initiated.
TCIP is also forming a new Task Force to create a supplemental TCIP data dictionary set and message set for transit signal priority. Harvey Glickenstein attended the kickoff meeting for our committee. He and Tom McGean will select a committee member to represent the interests of light rail transit on this task force.
Transit Standards Consortium. A Transit Standards Consortium is being formed intended to serve as an "overarching place to bring everything together" as well as a potential source of funds for standards activities. This will facillitate coordination of our committee's standards work which is becoming a very complex task.
A white paper on the consortium can be downloaded from the TCIP website, www.tcip.org.
FRA Coordination. Bill Petit and Bob Heggestad will serve as committee liaison to the Positive Train Control (PTC) Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) effort and will keep our committee informed of developments and need for coordination. RSAC has two task forces, one of which is involved with standards. The APTA representative on RSAC is Franz Cooper. Tom Sullivan agreed to add a website link to the AAR PTC site. (Positive Train Control is what mainline railroads call Communications Based Train Control).
IEC TC9 Committee. Tom McGean agreed to join the IEC to serve as a contact between the IEC TC9 committee and our committee.
PRESS Developments. PRESS is the APTA effort to develop Commuter Rail Safety Standards. Dave Phelps noted it has been ongoing for two years, and going full throttle for about a year. Most of the standards are mechanical/operational and Dave is serving as liaison to avoid overlap and duplication with our committee's efforts. Electrical areas PRESS is working on include grounding and bonding, insulation, car batteries, EMI, lighting, and dynamic braking.
Canadian Developments. George Achakji, Senior Advisor for Control Systems Technology for Transport Canada reported on developments in Canada. The Canadian study on Train Control Systems Technology has been completed and is available. The order form for the report is provided as Attachment 6.
Battery Standard. Stanley Kwa of New York City Transit has agreed to head a new Battery Standard Working Group (WG10) This new working group will extend work being done by the New York Regional Consortium in this area to permit joint battery buys. It was moved by Claude Gabriel, seconded by Arun Virginkar, and unanimously voted that the RTVISC would incorporate the existing membership of the NY Regional Consortium battery group into a new Working Group 10, and that the group would in turn be open to anyone else who wishes to participate. Anyone wishing to participate should contact Stan Kwa at 718 694 4486, Fax 718 488 6503, email CEENTS07SK@aol.com. The kickoff meeting is expected to be July 13th when the NY Regional Consortium next meets. Stan Kwa will submit an application to join the IEEE Rail Transit Vehicle Interface Standards Committee and prepare a PAR for the battery effort. The PAR will specifically note the need to interface with IEEE P1476 Passenger Train Auxiliary Power Systems (WG6) and with the PRESS Battery Standards effort. Dave Phelps will send Claude Gabriel (WG6 chair) a copy of the PRESS battery standard.
IEEE 16 Standard. Jim Dietz has agreed to head a working group to revive the IEEE16 motor control standard. It was moved by Dave Phelps, seconded by Norm Vutz and voted unanimously that the committee should take on this activity as a new Working Group 11 chaired by Jim Dietz. A PAR needs to be submitted. Tom McGean will provide Jim the PAR materials and he will prepare a PAR. Contact Jim Dietz at 215 542 0700, FAX 215 542 7676 email jim-dietz@ltk-bluebell.ccmail.compuserve )
5. Working Group Reports (To facilitate followup by working
group leaders activities have been organized by working
group even though the agenda did not follow this approach
at the actual meeting).
WG1 (P1473) Communications Protocols on Trains, Bob Anderson Chair. The final draft of P1473 was subject to line by line review during the meeting. It was moved by Lou Sanders, seconded by Tom Sullivan and unanimously voted to submit the P1473 standard to ballot. Tom McGean is to follow up with Tricia Gerdon of IEEE on how to handle Sections 7 and 8 and advise Bob Anderson. Bob will then provide a clean hard copy of the final draft standard to Tom, who will initiate the ballot process. The committee commended Bob Anderson for his efforts in shepherding this difficult standard through to ballot. Attachment 7 is the approved draft from the Chicago meeting.
WG2 (P1474.1) Communications Based Train Control, Alan Rumsey, Chair. The committee continues to be very active with over 100 participants. The draft standard has already been used by SEPTA for its CBTC procurement document. The next meeting will be July 15, 1998 at San Francisco MUNI. The report overheads are provided as Attachment 8.
WG3 (P1482) Rail Vehicle Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems, Linda Sue Boehmer, Chair (represented at meeting by Chris Holliday) The committee conducted a complete line by line review of P1482.1, Draft Standard for Rail Transit Vehicle Event Recorders. It issued the following suggestions/recommendations:
Revisions to the PAR were identified by the group. These will necessitate McGean withdrawing the PAR now submitted and replacing it. McGean will coordinate this with Rona Kershner of IEEE Standards.
Attachment 9 represents the revised Event Recorder standard resulting from the review in Chicago. WG3 was asked to respond to the recommendations and a final line by line review will be conducted at the next meeting in Saint Louis.
WG4 (P1483) Safety Standards for Software Systems, Jim Hoelscher, Chair (Report by McGean and Rumsey). The working group met July 11th after the APTA San Diego meeting. The next meeting will be September in Boston. The goal is to finish the standard by the end of the year. The latest draft will be on the web by July 15th.
WG5 (P1475) VOBC/Propulsion Controller/Motor/Brake, Dave Phelps, Chair. The draft standard was successfully balloted. At the meeting all affirmative and negative comments were discussed. Resolution is provided as Attachment 10A. McGean and Phelps will discuss unresolved negatives with Abe Kanner and then with IEEE staff (along with any substantial changes) to determine whether a recirculation ballot is needed. Attachment 10B is the current version of the standard after editorial changes in response to ballot comments. The committee commended Dave Phelps for shepherding this standard through the ballot process.
WG6 (P1476) Auxiliary Power Systems, Claude Gabriel, Chair. Draft revision 3.2 has been completed and is posted on the web. The title, scope and purpose are being changed and a new PAR will be submitted. Attachment 11 provides the committee report along with the proposed PAR changes. Please notify Claude Gabriel by July 1st of any changes you would like to see made to the new PAR.
WG7 P1477) Vehicle Passenger Information Standards, Lance Cooper, Chair. A final recirculation ballot is required to obtain committee concurrence that environmental requirements be those of Working Group 8 and that Working Group 8 will consider the proposed AAR environmental standards. P1477 will not cite environmental requirements but refer to the WG8 standard. The recirculation ballot was mailed just before the meeting. The WG9 effort will subsume the development of Passenger Information software standards by WG7 so that the P1477.1 effort in that area will not be initiated. However, Lance Cooper, chair of WG7 agreed he would provide Rob with the names of key passenger information data elements to be considered.
WG8 (P1478) Environmental Standards for Rail Transit Equipment, Chuck Elms, Chair. (Report by McGean) A draft standard has been prepared and is enclosed as Attachment 12 to these minutes. Please provide your comments directly to WG Chair Chuck Elms. (703 968 7883 FAX 703 968 7888 email cpelms@leaelliott.com ) The standard will be reviewed at the St. Louis meeting. The standard will address EMI. Dave Phelps agreed to supply Chuck Elms a copy of the PRESS Electrical Subgroup EMI draft and also provide it to Tom Sullivan to put on the web.
WG9 Transit Communications Interface Profiles for Rail Transit Systems, Rob McHugh, Chair. Based on discussions with TCIP, it appears the best approach will be to institute this activity as an IEEE effort under our committee. It was moved by Bob Anderson, seconded, and unanimously agreed that, providing this is acceptable to Mark Norman of the ITE, Rob will prepare an IEEE PAR for the WG9 effort. Tom McGean will provide Rob the materials and instructions for preparing a PAR. Rob's effort will subsume the development of Passenger Information software standards by WG7 so that the P1477.1 effort in that area will not be initiated. However, Lance Cooper, chair of WG7 agreed he would provide Rob with the names of key passenger information data elements to be considered. The complete WG9 report overheads are provided as Attachment 13. OMG (Object Management Group) is an industry standards group specializing in open standards for interoperable, distributed systems. They have created a Transportation Domain Task Force which is just beginning work. Further information is at their website at www.omb.org. or contact John Lewis (412 688 2076 or jflewis@switch.com ).
Rob reported his committee intends to use ASN.1 for database definitions. This is the same base used by TCN. The next WG9 meeting will be on the East coast and include a tutorial on ASN.1.
There was some question of whether TCN was compatible with TCIP. Rob agreed to check with TCIP, and Bob Anderson agreed to check with TCN whether the TCN data types are compatible with TCIP.
6. Other Business
Definitions. The Chair reiterated the definition policy for our standards. It is committee policy to use TRB Glossary definitions if the IEEE Dictionary does not have a requireed transit term. However, TRB Glossary definitions are not consensus standards. Thus, the TRB definition should be provided in the definitions section of the standard so it can be balloted and adopted. A further policy will be that once a definition is balloted and accepted for any standard sponsored by this committee, it will be binding for all standards sponsored by the committee, unless it can be shown to be clearly inapplicable. Working group chairs should thus be careful when reviewing standards prepared by other working groups, to be sure the other group's definitions are suitable for their standard also. Paul Jamieson is heading a Definitions Coordination Task. If any working group is using a definition not word for word from an approved source listed in the references to their standard, the definition must be sent to Paul who is maintaining a database of all definitions "invented" by our working groups. Approved sources are the IEEE Dictionary by default, the Urban Transportation Glossary preferentially and then any other accepted industry source such as the FRA. Paul has established the database, the most current version of which is provided as Attachment 14. It is also available at our website www.tsd.org.
7. Special Thanks
Special thanks are due to Lou Sanders for arranging and the American Public Transit Association for providing the meeting room and refreshments. Thanks are also due to Pat Murphy for arranging and the Chicago Transit Agency for providing a device for projecting computer laptop information using an overhead projector.
Thanks are also due to Bob Anderson and all WG1 members for bringing P1473 to ballot and to Dave Phelps and all WG5 members for carrying P1475 through the standards process.
8. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 4PM on June 18, 1998.