MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETING
RAIL TRANSIT VEHICLE INTERFACE STANDARDS COMMITTEE
April 29, 1999
New York City Transit, Brooklyn NY
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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. Please do not contact the Chair.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 (Jan. 25-26, 1999) were approved by the committee without changes.
Next Meeting. It was agreed that the next meeting will be held July 20-21, 1999 at ARINC offices in Annapolis, MD. The agenda will include resolution of affirmative and negative ballot comments from WG6 Auxiliary Power and line by line 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 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 two more standards (IEEE 1473 Standard for Communications Protocol Aboard Trains and IEEE 1475 Standard for the Functioning of and Interfaces among Propulsion, Friction Brake and Train-borne Master Control on Rail Rapid Transit Vehicles) have been approved by the IEEE and will be published as IEEE standards. The committee congratulated Bob Anderson, chair of the 1473 Working Group and Dave Phelps, chair of the 1475 Working Group on their groups' accomplishments. The status of other standards activities is summarized in Attachment 5.
4. Coordination
Ongoing Standards Activities. The chair presented a block diagram showing how our work was related to numerous other transit standards activities, and also a sheet explaining the acronyms used on the chart. It was pointed out the chart is a "straw man" and that help is needed to properly relate all activities and identify those that may have been missed. Persons are asked to email the chair at
t.j.mcgean@ieee.org with corrections or additions so we can improve the chart. The chart and list of acronyms are included as Attachment 6.Transit Standards Consortium. (Dave Phelps reporting) A Transit Standards Consortium has been formed intended to serve as an "overarching place to bring everything together" and promote and coordinate US transit standards activities. Information on the consortium is available from its website, www.tsconsortium.org
.The consortium is currently conducting a membership drive. Those interested should phone TSC at 201 567 0088 for a membership application and information.
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 Transit Signal Priority Working Group. This technical council working group is co-chaired by Ron Atherley of Seattle email
ronald.atherley@metrokc.gov and Dave Phillips, email dphillips@transtecamerica.com There is also a Rail Transit Standards Working Group led by Tom McGean. It was agreed its other members would be the RTVISC Steering Committee.FRA Regulations and Positive Train Control. (Report by Bill Petit) Work continues on new FRA regulations governing positive train control and microprocessors applied to interlockings. The third workshop is scheduled to be held in Colorado Springs at Antlers Adam's Mark on May 19th and 20th to provide a forum to discuss interoperability, coverage, service levels, transmission latency, capacity and migration. The PTC Task Forces will meet in Pueblo Colorado on May 24-27th at the Holiday Inn. 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 held its third meeting on April 22nd in San Diego. A draft Crashworthiness Standard has been prepared and distributed to committee members for their comments. Anyone wishing to review the draft should contact Joseph Pang of the ASME at
pangj@asme.org and ask for the RT-1 draft standard. The committee intends its next meeting to be in conjunction with the APTA annual meeting in Orlando; the exact date has not been tied down.PRESS Activities. (Report by Dave Phelps) PRESS has been making very good progress and expects to isssue a set of APTA PRESS standards documents shortly. 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 25, 1999 at 7-8:30AM in the Sheraton Center 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. Our members should note that the committee expects to be involved in recommending areas for transit standards.
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. This group will also be meeting during the APTA Toronto conference the end of May.
AAR Research. (Report by Lou Sanders) The TCRP program has provided extra funding to enable transit to tap into benefits of AAR research at the Pueblo TTC test facility. $250,000 is available for areas such as broken rail detection, wheel rail adhesion etc. Time is still available to submit research projects to TCRP. If you have ideas, let Lou know - now is a good time. Contact Lou at
lsanders@apta.comOMG 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.comLonMark 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 IEEE1473 L protocol standard a reality. The group met in New York on April 28th. Subsequent meetings are planned October 13-15 in Amsterdam and in conjunction with our next meeting in Annapolis. Contact Tom Sullivan at
tjs@pacbell.net for details. The LonMark website is www.lonmark.org.Highway Rail Intersection. A critical meeting is planned for July 22-23 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Washington DC to define the role of HRI in the national ITS architecture. Linda Meadow (
lmeadow@earthlink.net ) is a key contact in this area.Other Business
Software Documentation Standard. (report by Paul Jamieson) Paul noted that there is a need for software documentation standards. A software documentation task force has been formed to recommend a course of action to the full committee. Because the task force intended to meet at NYCT the following day, Paul asked to defer their report to the full committee until the next meeting in Annapolis.
IEEE 16 Standard. (Report by Jim Dietz) Jim Dietz has drafted a PAR and a working group has been formed. Jim will get a draft of the PAR to Tom McGean who will arrange to submit it to the IEEE. 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. Lawrence Mirecki indicated Siemens would probably be willing to submit a letter of support. Letters of support are important to getting this project funded and are needed by May 7th. Send them to Tom McGean (FAX 757 789 5167, email
t.j.mcgean@ieeee.org Also contact chair McGean if you would like a copy of the proposal, or if your company is interested in joining the consortium. Now is the time for consortium members and others supportive of the effort 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 has tentatively agreed to take over that responsibility. Tom McGean agreed he would give Tom Sullivan an email attachment of the proposal to post on the web.IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Board of Governors. The VTS Board of Governors meets in about two weeks. Tom McGean is to give Linda Sue Boehmer a progress report for the meeting.
Information Dissemination. McGean Sanders and Phelps are to make arrangements to disseminate RTVISC standards to committee members and the transit industry.
Linda Sue Boehmer will propose to the Technical Activities Board (TAB) of IEEE that all IEEE RTVISC standards (and also IEEE 11) be bundled so they can be purchased as a single document. Fred Perelstein suggested also including the PRESS standards in the document.
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. Paul Jamieson Chair. Paul noted the ASME Rail Transit Standards Committee has voted that it will use IEEE definitions rather than invent new ones and has asked us to do the same with their ASME definitions. It was moved by Dave Phelps that ASME definitions be accepted in priority after existing IEEE definitions and before using the TRB Glossary. The motion was seconded by Bob Anderson and approved unanimously by all attending the meeting. The priority for definitions is thus 1) IEEE Dictionary 2) Existing RTVISC balloted standards 3) ASME Lexicon 4) ASME RTSC balloted standards 5) TRB Glossary 6) Homegrown definition. A policy statement drafted by the Chair to reflect the sense of the committee 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.
WG1 (P1473) Communications Protocols on Trains, Bob Anderson Chair. The WG1 standard IEEE 1473 has been approved by the IEEE as an official standard. The RTVISC commended Bob Anderson and his working group for their achievement Bob Anderson urged members to support the Joint Partnership Program Proposal which will fund a TCN LonWorks Gateway and a North American demonstration of TCN. He also noted that the work of WG9 is critical to achieving the goal of full interoperability.
WG2 (P1474.1) Communications Based Train Control, Alan Rumsey, Chair The P1474.1 standard has been released for ballot. The committee will meet after the ballot closes to resolve ballot comments. It took 15 months and 7 meetings to develop the standard. The RTVISC commended Dr. Rumsey and his working group for their achievement.
WG3 (P1482) Rail Vehicle Monitoring and Diagnostic Systems, Linda Sue Boehmer, Chair The Event Recorder recirculation ballot passed with some affirmative comments which the committee directed Linda Sue to resolve. Tom McGean will submit a ballot report for IEEE approval. 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. The committee asked that the working group consider an effort to expand the standard. The committee congratulated Linda Sue and her working group for an excellent job in responding quickly to the industry need for an Event Recorder standard.
WG4 (P1483) Safety Standards for Software Systems, Jim Hoelscher, Chair A final draft has been submitted to the IEEE for editing. The ballot group roster is being prepared and the standard will be released for ballot shortly..
WG5 (P1475) VOBC/Propulsion Controller/Motor/Brake, Dave Phelps, Chair. The WG5 standard IEEE 1475 has been approved by the IEEE as an official standard. Rick Major of WABCO and Jim Dietz of LTK produced the graphics. IEEE prefers TIF files for graphics. Do NOT use embedded figures in Word. Embedded tables are "negotiable". IEEE accepts them though it prefers they not be embedded. The RTVISC commended Dave Phelps and his working group for their achievement.
WG6 (P1476) Auxiliary Power Systems, Claude Gabriel, Chair The committee is meeting April 30th at NYCT to complete reaction to changes requested by the full committee in Irvine. The standard will be released for ballot shortly and the ballot comments taken up at the Annapolis meeting.
WG7 P1477) Vehicle Passenger Information Standards, Lance Cooper, Chair The standard has been published as an IEEE standard. Lance is considering reactivating the committee to develop the logical interface in cooperation with Rob's WG9 and the Passenger Information work of TCIP. Anyone interested should contact Lance at
lcooper@wmata.comWG8 (P1478) Environmental Standards for Rail Transit Equipment, Chuck Elms, Chair. The committee reviewed the current draft of this standard. Jim Hoelscher agreed to fax Chuck Elms relative humidity numbers. Chuck will obtain the ATCS environmental standards from Lou Sanders and fine tune them for use in his standard. A cautionary note will be provided for roof mounted equipment. The line by line review will be continued at the meeting in Annapolis. Please provide any comments directly to WG Chair Chuck Elms. (703 968 7883 FAX 703 968 7888 email cpelms@leaelliott.com ) The version of the standard after review at the meeting is provided as Attachment 7 .
WG9 Transit Communications Interface Profiles for Rail Transit Systems, Rob McHugh, Chair. The working group is meeting April 30th at NYCT for a working session on generating object sets. Both wayside and vehicle object sets need to be considered. WG9 effort needs to be coordinated with ROSIN, TCN, LonMark, and TCIP which will be discussed at the meeting April 30th.
WG10 Battery Standard, Stanley Kwa, Chair. (Report by John Shield of PATCO) This new working group has held two meetings to date. Members include 3 manufacturers, 2 consultants, 2 carbuilders and 6 operating agencies. A draft is being circulated. All current cell dimensions have been compiled. Participation by more midwest 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.
Special Thanks
Special thanks are due to Jack Dempsey of NYCT for providing the excellent meeting facilities, Gene Sansone and Lorraine Brillante, Kenneth Teu and Debby _____ of his staff for a great job with meeting arrangements including arranging for refreshments and lunch, arranging for meeting rooms and equipment, arranging for an outstanding dinner at Gage and Tollner, arranging for a tour of the new NYCT simulator, arranging for a tour of the Brooklyn Transit Museum, and arranging for hotel accommodations at a favorable rate at the Brooklyn Marriott. Thanks to all of you for a great job!
8. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5PM on April 29th, 1999.