Note: Action Items assigned to committee members are

Minutes. Minutes of the Chicago meeting (June 17-18, 1998) were approved by the committee without changes.

Next Meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting will be

held Jan. 25-26, 1999. It was agreed it would be in Irvine, California at the Beckman Center. However, TRB has since advised the Beckman Center will not be available. Chair McGean is locating other facilities. Members and friends will be advised of the location by mail and at our website. The agenda will include resolution of affirmative and negative ballot comments from WG1 Communications Protocols, second review of WG6 Auxiliary Power, first review of WG8, Environmental Standards, and possible ballot results for WG3, event recorder.

Internet. Our website is maintained by Tom Sullivan at:

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.

We also have an IEEE email mailing list:

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! 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.

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. These were requested at the Chicago meeting, but to date none have been received. In St. Louis Claude Gabriel indicated he would discuss this with Bombardier and Jim Kemp agreed to see about a letter from New Jersey Transit. 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 Fall and alternatively as a rail project under the transit component of ITS

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". 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 was held at New Jersey Transit on July 17, 1998. The next meeting will be 9AM, November 18, 1998 at SEPTA headquarters in Philadelphia.

APTA Rolling Stock Committee. The APTA Rolling Stock Committee is being reorganized.One of its missions will be to identify needs for standards activities in the rolling stock area. The next meeting will be May 1999 in Toronto during the APTA rapid/commuter rail conference. 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.

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 facilitate coordination of our committee's standards work which is becoming a very complex task. An important first meeting of the Board Members will be held Sunday, October 4, 1998 at the New York Hilton in conjunction with the APTA annual meeting. The meeting begins at 3PM and is open to all.

The Transit Standards Consortium has created a Technical Council Working Group related to Transit Signal Priority. Tom Sullivan agreed to serve as RTVISC liaison to the Technical Council. Chair McGean will notify the Technical Council.

FRA Coordination. There will be a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in November on Positive Train Control. Commuter rail properties need to keep an eye on this to check for any implications on their operations; to date transit participation in PTC activities has been low.

In Saint Louis, there was considerable discussion about the OMG CORBA Interface Definition Language (IDL) which enables client/server interaction of data objects using an Object Request Broker (ORB). This approach uses object oriented programming. In contrast the TCIP message objects use ASN.1 encoding rules and do not lend themselves to true object oriented programming. The CORBA approach is one approach; Microsoft is pushing a competing approach (DCOM). OMG has offered to provide reciprocal membership to the Transit Standards Consortium, which will enable us to use that group as a vehicle for our participation in OMG standards efforts. The committee agreed that our WG9 TCIP efforts should harmonize with OMG efforts to the extent possible; at a minimum by using common variables, units and syntax, and imposing restrictions to promote one to one mapping between ASN.1 and IDL. To determine whether further cooperation is advisable, two steps will be taken:

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 ballot on P1473 has gone out and should be there when participants return to their offices from the meeting. A notable editorial change was eliminating the 1473.1 and 1473.2 designations for TCN and LonWorks which did not follow IEEE format. They are now called Type I and Type II.

WG2 (P1474.1) Communications Based Train Control, Alan Rumsey, Chair (Report given by Tom Sullivan). The committee continues to be very active with 52 participants and 45 friends. The target is to substantially complete the standard by the end of 1998 in order to ballot it in early 1999. The next meeting will be September 30, 1998 at the Volpe Center in Boston. WG2 requested the full committee to delegate it balloting rights in view of its large size and specialized subject matter. After discussion it was moved by John Ewing and seconded by Pat Murphy that the committee delegate balloting rights to WG2. The motion passed unanimously. The motion included the right of all RTVISC members to ask to be added to the WG2 balloting group if they so choose. The committee asked WG2 to provide a presentation on the standard to the full committee at its next meeting in January, since we will not be doing a line by line review.

WG3 (P1482) Rail Vehicle Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems, Linda Sue Boehmer, Chair The committee conducted a complete line by line review of P1482.1, Draft Standard for Rail Transit Vehicle Event Recorders. Actions requested by the committee are contained in the draft provided as Attachment 6 of these minutes. Actions to be taken included the following:

Lou Sanders moved and Pat Murphy seconded that the Event Recorder be put out to ballot subject to the WG3 committee meeting to resolve the questions raised by the full committee. The motion passed with one negative vote. Linda Sue Boehmer should work out a schedule for resolving these open issues and advise Tom McGean so he can arrange the ballot. The committee asked WG3 to coordinate its meeting with a WG1 meeting if possible.

WG4 (P1483) Safety Standards for Software Systems, Jim Hoelscher, Chair The working group met July 11^th after the APTA San Diego meeting. The next meeting will be October 1^st 1998 at the Volpe Center in Boston. The group has 30 plus active members and a mailing list of 80 persons. Version 13 of the standard is on the RTVISC website. The goal is to finish the appendices to the standard by the end of the year and ballot the first quarter of 1999. A working group report is provided as Attachment 7.

WG5 (P1475) VOBC/Propulsion Controller/Motor/Brake, Dave Phelps, Chair. The draft standard was successfully balloted. All negative comments except one by Abe Kanner have been resolved. A recirculation ballot will be conducted with all editorial changes in response to comments along with the specific unresolved question. Members were reminded they need not return the ballot unless they wish to change their vote.

WG6 (P1476) Auxiliary Power Systems, Claude Gabriel, Chair. A revised PAR has been submitted. The committee conducted a line by line review of the Auxiliary Power draft standard. Attachment 8 has the suggested changes and action items resulting from the meeting. A final line by line review will be conducted at the January meeting. Claude was asked to coordinate Section 4.5 with Stan Kwa's new battery working group.

WG7 P1477) Vehicle Passenger Information Standards, Lance Cooper, Chair (Report by McGean). The standard has been sent to IEEE REVCOM for final approval and publishing. Several comments raised by REVCOM were addressed by Chair McGean and Lance Cooper. WG Chairs are reminded to be sure to coordinate with all groups identified in their PAR as this is required.

WG8 (P1478) Environmental Standards for Rail Transit Equipment, Chuck Elms, Chair. (Report by McGean) A second draft standard has been prepared and is on the website. The present plan is to reference the AAR Signal Manual Environmental Requirements which compare favorably with WG8 values. 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 January meeting.

WG10 Battery Standard, Stanley Kwa, Chair. This new working group has prepared and submitted its PAR which will deal with physical dimensions of batteries to permit joint buys. Three battery manufacturers are involved at this time. Stan needs help getting more involvement from the West Coast and Canada. A list of the present WG10 members is provided as Attachment 9. Anyone wishing to participate should contact Stan Kwa at 718 694 4486, Fax 718 488 6503, email CEENTS07SK@aol.com.

Definitions. 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 available at our website www.tsd.org. Attachment 10provides the latest current list of RTVISC abbreviations and definitions.

Special thanks are due to Wayne Eder and the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way for providing us with a meeting room for our two day meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 5PM on September 17, 1998.