SunRail Development

In 2012 our railway customer, a major player in the field of railway signaling and integrated transport systems, turned to PSA with the SunRail Development project. SunRail is a commuter rail transit running along a 61-mile stretch of existing rail freight tracks in the Orlando, FL metro region.

The main purpose of the project was to reduce traffic congestion in Central Florida. The project had been divided into two phases to simplify the work process. The first phase consisted of 31 miles that had to serve 12 stations linking DeBary to Orlando. Phase II included 5 additional stations linking north to DeLand and south to Poinciana. 

The primary objective for the SunRail Development project was to implement the communications interface between the back office and both the Public Announcement (PA) system providing audio messages to commuters on train arrivals, and the Variable Message Signs (VMS) system providing visual status. These communications interfaces provided the connectivity between the back office operations center and commuters getting both audio and visual status updates on train arrival and departure times. 

Implemented railway signaling solution consisted of making customizations to the Traffic Control System (TCS) within the existing software system designed for heavy rail transportation. 

These customizations included updates to the train data management system, automatic data provision from TCS to the dispatching system to be published on all commuter stations, and tuning communication between train dispatches and field personnel in order to improve control on miscellaneous railroad wayside devices (signal lamps, switches, etc.).

For part of the project, systems engineering activities were performed which included requirements gathering and formalization. 

• Functional requirements definition.
• Design documents creation.
• Implementation.
• Unit testing.
• Functional testing.