WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration will hold a public hearing regarding two Genesee & Wyoming short lines’ proposal to test Parallel Systems autonomous flat cars in Georgia.
The hearing will be held March 12 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Vidalia, Ga., and will be livestreamed, the FRA announced today. People can submit comments in person or virtually.
FRA also is extending the public comment period by 14 days, through April 1, which the safety agency said would allow time for interested parties to submit comments on the railroad’s petition or in response to comments made at the public hearing.
In August 2023 the Heart of Georgia Railroad and Georgia Central Railway sought FRA permission to test Parallel’s equipment. The application asks the FRA to temporarily suspend a slew of current regulations, from rail operating practices and locomotive safety standards to safety appliance standards and brake system safety regulations, that would permit use of Parallel’s flat cars.
Parallel’s battery-electric cars are designed to help railroads better compete against trucks in the short-haul intermodal market. The tests aim to evaluate the three primary components of the Parallel system: The autonomous vehicles themselves, the user terminals that allow people to control the equipment, and the computer servers that send data between the vehicles and the user terminals.
For more details on the hearing and how to submit comments, see the FRA notice in the Federal Register.
What does the charging infrastructure look like for a system like this?
Testing in a *live* railroad environment with crossbuck crossings and country roads just seems like a recipe for an unplanned event. Get a grant from the FRA and take it out to Pueblo where this kind of testing should be started.
Good points. Also, why do safety standards need to be suspended? More reason to test them off line at a place like Pueblo’s off line test tracks…