News
Traction Power Consortium Meeting Went Virtual
Posted April 2020
The health and safety of our partners and staff are the Center’s highest priority. After careful consideration, and in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Traction Power Training Consortium postponed its first in-person meeting in Dallas, Texas, on March 23-27. We remain excited to host the Consortium later this year as we monitor the spread of the virus and its containment over time.
The Consortium team gathered for a virtual meeting on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. It was a good turnout with sixteen attendees from Consortium members from DART, GCRTA, Metro Transit, NFTA, SacRT, SEPTA, and VTA as well as the ATU International. Center staff, Amri Joyner, opened the meeting with a huge thank you to the wonderful folks in Dallas from DART and ATU Local 1338 who helped us with meeting space, hotel recommendations, set up substation tours, and answered our many questions as we prepared for the in-person meeting.
During this meeting, we examined how member agencies were coping with the pandemic and discussed policies in place for operation, maintenance, training, and other topics. Center staff expressed their commitment to developing traction power maintenance training courses and outlined the next steps for the Consortium. They presented the course development timeline and, for the year 2020, will develop four of the Level 100 courses. These are:
· 101 History Regulation and Safety of Rail Electrification Systems
· 102 Introduction to Power Distribution
· 103 Introduction to Overhead Systems
· 104 Introduction to Third Rail Systems
The team of instruction designers and subject matter experts have started on Courses 101 and 102. Courses 103 and 104 will begin in August.
The Traction Power Training Consortium is a four-year (2020-2023) project that will create a suite of courses on traction power maintenance for new and experienced maintainers. The courses will include video and interactive training that member agencies can deliver to their employees. Each course also includes a participant guide, instructor guide, presentation slides, quizzes, hands-on assessments, and a final course assessment. For more information please contact Amri Joyner.
