MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING

MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING

RAIL TRANSIT VEHICLE INTERFACE STANDARDS COMMITTEE

January 25-26, 1999

Marriott Irvine, Irvine CA

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(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 Saint Louis meeting (Sept. 16-17, 1998) were approved by the committee without changes.

Next Meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting will be held April 29-30, 1999 at New York City Transit in Brooklyn, New York. Gene Sansone will assist with arrangements. The agenda will include resolution of affirmative and negative ballot comments from WG6 Auxiliary Power, as well as any comments from recirculation ballot of WG3 Event Recorder, and first review of WG8 Environmental Standards. The committee will also consider task force recommendations concerning the need for a software documentation 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. At this meeting it was agreed that email attachments to Tom for posting may now be sent in either Word 6.0/95 or Word 97.

We also have an IEEE email mailing list:

stds-railtransit@ieee.org

The current list of members on the list is shown in 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.

Progress Report. Chair McGean announced that our first standard, 1477-1998, IEEE Standard for Passenger Information System for Rail Transit Vehicles, has been published and may be purchased from IEEE Standards (800 678 IEEE) for $49 IEEE Member, $61, nonmember. The committee congratulated Lance Cooper, chair of the 1477 Working Group on his group's accomplishment. The status of other standards activities is summarized in Attachment 5. McGean also announced that IEEE is providing a new way of doing standards using a newly created IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization, which complements the IEEE Standards Association through which the RTVISC works. The new organization will not need to necessarily use consensus, due process and openness, nor work through the American National Standards Institute, as we do. It provides an alternative process which is intended to be faster. Details are in Attachment 6. Email Chair McGean (t.j.mcgean@ieee.org) if you have any thoughts about whether or how the rail transit industry should make use of this new standards option.

4. Coordination

Transit Standards Consortium. (Dave Phelps reporting) A Transit Standards Consortium has been formed intended to serve as an "overarching place to bring everything together" as well as a potential source of funds for standards activities. Information on the consortium is available from its website, www.tsconsortium.org.

The Transit Standards Consortium has created a Technical Council Working Group related to Transit Signal Priority. Tom Sullivan has agreed to serve as RTVISC liaison to the Technical Council. Chair McGean will notify the Technical Council. There is also a Rail Transit Standards Working Group led by Tom McGean. It was agreed its members would be the RTVISC Steering Committee. The Transit Standards Consortium is presently conducting a membership drive. Details on the consortium and joining are provided in Attachment 7. The complete TSC report given at the meeting is provided as Attachment 8.

Because of the large amount of standards work underway, the committee asked the chair to have a block diagram prepared relating the various activities to one another. Tom McGean, Dave Phelps and Lou Sanders will prepare this chart.

FRA Regulations and Positive Train Control. (Report by John LaForce) Work continues on new FRA regulations governing positive train control and microprocessors applied to interlockings. Deliberations including FRA, management and labor unions are now in their 15^th month. The next meeting is scheduled for the week of February 1stin Orlando FL. The goal is to complete the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which was not completed last November as anticipated. Commuter rail properties need to keep an eye on this to check for any implications on their operations.

ASME Developments. (Report by the Chair) Stan Canjea's ASME Standards Committee on Rail Transit Vehicles has held two meetings. Its 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 next meeting will be 9AM, April 22, 1999 in San Diego CA.

PRESS Activities. (Report by Dave Phelps) PRESS has been very active the past year developing standards for commuter rail and a considerable number have been approved. Dave continues to closely monitor and coordinate PRESS and RTVISC to be sure our efforts are complementary and eliminate any duplication of effort.

APTA Rolling Stock Committee. (Report by Dave Phelps) 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. (Report by Lou Sanders) This group has been formed to identify ITS related development needs of the rail transit industry and further their development. They are working with the FTA Joint Program office on final guidance mandating the architecture for ITS. The group is 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. Lou noted an RFA for the Intelligent Vehicle Initiative is on the street with a March 14^th closing date. Information may be found on the ITS website which is linked to the APTA website (www.apta.com)

AAR Research. (Report by Chris Jenks) The TCRP program has provided extra funding to enable transit to tap into benefits of AAR research at the Pueblo TTCI test facility. $250,000 is available for areas such as broken rail detection, wheel rail adhesion etc.

Other Business

Software Documentation Standard. (report by Paul Jamieson) Paul noted that there is a need for software documentation standards. Lou Sanders noted that Jim McDermott of NYCT has a very active interest in this area and papers have been submitted for the APTA Toronto conference. Dave Phelps noted that ITE and SAE are active under the TCIP activities in this area. He will find out what they are doing and advise Paul. It was agreed that Paul Jamieson, Jim Dietz, and Al Rumsey will contact Jim McDermott as well as individuals to be nominated by Bob Anderson, Gene Sansone, and Jim Hoelscher from their organizations. This group of seven persons will survey the area and prepare a one to two page report for the next full committee meeting of RTVISC in New York recommending whether or not we need to submit a PAR for standards work in this area. Paul Jamieson's report to this meeting on software documentation is provided as attachment 9.

IEEE 11 Standard. (report by Linda Sue Boehmer) The IEEE ll Standard on Electric Motors has been revised and is now being balloted. Linda Sue Boehmer is the RTVISC coordination person. Responses are due February 12^th. Contact Tom mcGean (757 789 5166, email t.j.mcgean@ieee.org ) if you require a copy of the standard.

IEEE 16 Standard. (Report by Jim Dietz) Jim Dietz has agreed to head a working group to revive the IEEE16 motor control standard. A PAR has been drafted but not yet submitted and a working group of 7 persons formed. Walter Keevil (CTA), John Ewing (STV) and Gene Sansone (NYCT) agreed to provide Jim with nominees for the working group from their organizations. The working group will be meeting in the next 2-6 weeks. To get involved contact Jim Dietz at 215 542 0700, FAX 215 542 7676 email jdietz@ltk.com.

Funding for Protocol Implementation. WG1, Communications Protocols, has recommended a Gateway/TCN Demonstration Project as being desirable to reduce the P1473 Standard to practice. 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. The project has been endorsed by the Transit Standards Consortium. A "Consortium for Communications Protocol Implementation" has been formed consisting of BART, Adtranz, Bombardier, Echelon, Harmon Industries, Wabco, and Union Switch and Signal and a proposal submitted to the FTA Joint Partnership Program in the Consortium's name. Contact chair McGean if you would like a copy of the proposal, or if your company is interested in joining the consortium. McGean also noted that now is the time for consortium members and others supportive of the effort to contact FTA officials to indicate their support and interest. FTA persons involved in the Joint Partnership Program include Tony Yen (202 366-0264, Don Durkee (202 366-0942) and Ed Thomas (202 366-0264). While Tom McGean has served as acting consortium coordinator, Bombardier agreed to take over that responsibility.

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

LonMark Interoperability Association. (report by Tom Sullivan) The LonMark Interoperability Association has formed a new transportation group. Tom Sullivan serves as the interim chair. One of the group's tasks will be to help make the 1473 protocol standard a reality. Attachment 10 provides further details.

Y2K. Lou Sanders asked the committee to consider what it could contribute to the Y2K problem, in particular with regard to documenting software changes after 2000. The committee consensus was that Y2K should be left with the groups created for that purpose and that its involvement at this time would not be useful.

ASME/IEEE Joint Rail Meeting. The annual IEEE/ASME Joint Rail meeting will be held April 13-15 in Dallas.

6. 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).

Definitions.
It is committee policy to use TRB Glossary definitions if the IEEE Dictionary does not have a required 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.

(Report by Paul Jamieson) Under the TCRP Standard Capacity Manual project, a new glossary has been assembled. The TRB has not accepted this glossary to replace the one we have been using. Paul and Dave Phelps have copies of this new glossary. Dave Phelps will report any developments concerning this new glossary at our next meeting in New York. Paul Jamieson will give Dave a marked up copy of the new glossary noting differences between its terms and those we are now using.

The RTVISC summary of definitions being used by all working groups is available at our website www.tsd.org.

WG1 (P1473) Communications Protocols on Trains, Bob Anderson Chair. The ballot on P1473 passed with no negative votes. Bob Anderson discussed the affirmative comments and the resolution of them by his working group. Tom Sullivan moved, Yehuda Gross seconded, and the committee unanimously agreed to accept the report and comment dispositions of WG1 and submit the standard to IEEE Standards for final approval. Tom McGean will prepare and submit the ballot report. Attachment 11 is Bob Anderson's report. Attachment 12 is the complete disposition of all comments by his working group.

Gene Sansone stated that he abstained and did not vote for the 1473 standard because of NYCT concern that TCN is proprietary and not an open protocol, and because he thought it had a favored position in the 1473 standard. The Chair and Bob Anderson both stated that the standard treated both Echelon and TCN equitably as evidenced by affirmative votes from partisans of both approaches and noted that TCN is well on its way to becoming an international consensus standard. Bob Anderson agreed to put together an information packet on the openness of TCN and its status with regard to IEC standard balloting. This material has been provided as Attachment 13 to these minutes.

WG2 (P1474.1) Communications Based Train Control, Alan Rumsey, Chair The committee continues to be very active with 108 participants and friends. The target is to substantially complete the standard at the next meeting in Louisville February 21-22 and then ballot it. Over $500,000 of industry investment has been made in the WG2 standard including time and travel volunteered. There was considerable discussion of how to handle EMI performance standards and it was agreed to defer that until the next meeting.

Alan concluded with a personal view that it will not be possible to jump directly from the performance standards now being developed into interface standards. He also reminded the committee of the CBTC Conference to be held May 11/12 in Washington DC. Complete briefing charts are provided as Attachment 14.

WG3 (P1482) Rail Vehicle Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems, Linda Sue Boehmer, Chair The Event Recorder ballot passed with one negative vote by Jim Dietz. The negative comments were discussed between the committee and Jim Dietz and all issues were resolved. Some members of the committee voiced concern that the standard does not have complete information on type of signal, source, sampling rate, recording rate and resolution and will not be a complete interface standard. Linda Sue replied that this is the level of detail which can be agreed upon at this time, and represents a first step which will be valuable to the industry. Gene Sansone and Tom McGean had formal comments on the impact shock part of the standard. After considerable discussion, this was referred back to the working group for reconsideration. Yehuda Gross moved that WG3 be empowered to resolve the affirmative comments at a working group meeting and submit the revised standard to recirculation ballot, covering only those areas significantly changed in reacting to comments (affirmative or negative). Lou Sanders seconded and it unanimously carried. A ballot summary and documentation of the Negative comment resolution at the meeting is summarized in Attachment 15.

WG4 (P1483) Safety Standards for Software Systems, Jim Hoelscher, Chair The working group met December 2 in Philadelphia; 18 persons attended. The next meeting is scheduled for Melbourne Florida on March 2^nd and 3^rd. Version 15 of the standard was posted on our website January 21 1999. Comments on this version are due by February 15, 1999. A new version 16 will then be posted on the web February 25^th 1999. A complete review of the standard will be conducted at the Melbourne meeting, after which the standard will be submitted to IEEE editors for review. A final line by line review by the full working group will then be conducted after which it will be submitted to ballot in June or July of 1999.

WG5 (P1475) VOBC/Propulsion Controller/Motor/Brake, Dave Phelps, Chair. A ballot report has been submitted to IEEE Standards for final review and approval of this standard. Dave Phelps and Tom Sullivan will coordinate to see that the final version of P1475 is the one posted on our website.

WG6 (P1476) Auxiliary Power Systems, Claude Gabriel, Chair The committee conducted final review of the Auxiliary Power draft standard. Yehuda Gross moved and Paul Jamieson seconded that the standard as modified at this meeting be approved to go to ballot. This motion passed unanimously. Attachment 16 is the final version as it was approved at the meeting.

The following other actions were agreed upon:

Paul Jamieson and Claude Gabriel will coordinate/rationalize the auxiliary power definitions (See Attachment 17 recommendations).

Table 1 will be made an informative Annex. The standard will require that a responsibility matrix of this type be completed but not specify how it is filled in.

WG6 will change "supplier" to "designer" in Table 2. For Table 2 make sure it is clear that column 1 is typical industry terminology, columns 3, 4 and 5 are informative, and columns 6 and 7 are mandatory.
Chair McGean is to determine from IEEE whether nonconsensus standards (e.g. PRESS) can be cited in the references.

Battery compartment, safety ventilation etc. are to be deleted from WG6. If covered, they will be covered by WG10 (Stan Kwa).

WG7 P1477) Vehicle Passenger Information Standards, Lance Cooper, Chair The standard has been published as an IEEE standard.

WG8 (P1478) Environmental Standards for Rail Transit Equipment, Chuck Elms, Chair. (Report by McGean) Chuck Elms is soliciting committee help in the areas of rain, snow, lightning and solar gain. Please provide your comments directly to WG Chair Chuck Elms. (703 968 7883 FAX 703 968 7888 email cpelms@leaelliott.com ) His complete report and draft standard are provided as Attachment 18. Bob Anderson noted that AAR standards are no longer being maintained so it may not be possible to refer to them. The committee gave WG8 the following instructions:

The Standard should be modified to follow IEEE format. P1475. P1473 or 1477 can be used as models.

Chuck Elms should get in touch with Jim Dietz and Gene Sansone who will assist in completing the environmental requirements.

WG9 Transit Communications Interface Profiles for Rail Transit Systems, Rob McHugh, Chair. The working group has held five meetings to date and have divided up the work. There should be a draft to discuss at the next meeting in mid February. They will be using ASN.1, a common language for TCIP and TCN, and ROSIN objects from TCN whenever possible. The missing part of the puzzle is the final conversion of objects into ASN.1 language which will require a consultant and funding. The WG9 report is provided as Attachment 19.

WG10 Battery Standard, Stanley Kwa, Chair. This new working group has held two meetings to date. The next meeting will be held in Cockerville MD on March 16^th. WG10 will be a dimensional standard only. Battery sizing will not be part of WG10. Once the user has decided the campacity (amp hours) needed, then the WG10 standard will give the battery dimensions. It may prove necessary to resubmit the PAR. Participation by more southern and western transit agencies in this working group is needed and requested. Contact Stan Kwa at 212 492 8307, Fax 212 492 8360, email CEENTS07SK@aol.com.

7. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5PM on January 26, 1999.