Rail Cars Equipment Packages

 

The following equipment packages are associated with the "Rail Cars" element.   Select the "Details" icon to see the detailed process specifications that support each equipment package, or consult the National ITS Architecture web site for more information.

 

On-board Cargo Monitoring

This Equipment package provides the Commercial Vehicle Subsystem the capability to monitor both interstate and intrastate cargo safety such that enforcement and HAZMAT response teams can be provided with timely and accurate information. This includes only the equipment on board the cargo container such as a communication device, possibly the addition of a cell-based radio, and equipment for the processing and storage of cargo material. This can also include optional sensors for temperature, pressure, load leveling, or acceleration depending upon the items monitored. It is already expected that the cargo location devices such as GPS equipment and an integration processor already exist. These items are presented as part of the On-board Trip Monitoring Equipment package.

 

Vehicle Location Determination

This equipment package determines current location information and provides this information to other equipment packages that use the location information to provide various ITS services.

 

Vehicle Mayday I/F

This Equipment package shall provide the capability for an in-vehicle manually initiated distress signal with cancel a prior issued manual request for help feature. This capability shall include automatically identifying that a collision had occurred using equipment such as collision detection sensors with interface to mayday type equipment that would automatically detect vehicle problems and for some cases, automatically send appropriate distress signals to the Emergency Management Subsystem.