Amtrak Downeaster to get $50M high-tech control system to improve safety
Photo / Courtesy, Amtrak
A crew member works on a positive train control system in the Amtrak system.
The Amtrak Downeaster train route in southern Maine will be getting a $51 million upgrade that includes automated technology to improve safety.
Amtrak and CSX Transportation, in partnership with the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, said this week they would install a positive train control system, or PTC, which is designed to automatically control train speeds and movements.
The system will be installed on more than 100 miles of track between Brunswick and Haverhill, Mass.
Amtrak is funding the project and CSX, which owns the tracks, is performing the work. Scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2026, the PTC system will support the Amtrak Downeaster service as well as freight trains traveling the route.
The Amtrak Downeaster train runs every day along the New England shoreline between Boston and Brunswick. In Maine, the train serves Brunswick, Freeport, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Wells.
The Downeaster is a 145-mile passenger train service operated by Amtrak and managed by the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, an agency of the state of Maine.
“In addition to the significant safety improvements, the installation of PTC creates opportunities for potential increases in Downeaster frequencies in the future,” said Patricia Quinn, the rail authority’s executive director.
The project will add signals, wayside units and other safety enhancements to the track, which will be tied into CSX’s existing PTC system.
The design phase was completed in March 2023, and the construction agreement between Amtrak and CSX was executed in November 2023.
Amtrak is also funding the renewal of the entire signal system for the 100-mile stretch of track, which is over 70 years old in some locations. The new signal system is expected to provide greater reliability for passenger and freight trains.
PTC systems that meet the standards set by the Federal Railroad Administration’s regulations are required to automatically prevent train-to-train collisions, over-speed derailments, incursion into work zones and movement through a main line switch in the improper position.
The investment is part of Amtrak’s work with partners throughout the industry to advance PTC on host infrastructure, according to a news release.
The announcement follows another project unveiled last December, to make $34.3 million in repairs and related improvements along the tracks between Brunswick and the Massachusetts border.
CSX Transportation acquired the tracks when its parent company, Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp. (Nasdaq: CSX), purchased Pan Am Railways Inc. in 2022. Pan Am had owned 400 miles of train tracks in Maine, or about a third of the state’s rail mileage.
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