mook Wrote:
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> For freights in the Surfliner 90 mph (still good
> old ATS?) territory: do freight locomotives have
> to have ATS too or does the dispatcher do all the
> work? If they do need ATS, how does BNSF handle
> that since little of their railroad elsewhere in
> CA allows more than 79 for passengers (a few bits
> of Needles perhaps)? I would presume they don't
> have ATS on everything -- too costly and
> maintenance intensive -- but that might be a
> problem making sure the right leading locos get
> assigned to San Diego trains. And I think I saw
> something here a while back saying that BNSF was
> gradually deactivating ATS elsewhere on the
> Transcon (slowing Amtrak to 79) because the
> maintenance was too much for 2 trains a day which
> if true would make it less likely that freight
> equipment with ATS would be available in the long
> term. Curious....

I'm slightly confused by your question, but if you're asking whether freight trains operating on the San Diego line need to have a lead unit that's ATS equipped, the answer is no, because the Maximum Authorized Speed for freight trains is never greater than 55 MPH. If that's not what you're asking, then I've given you the right answer to the wrong question.