said by leibold:While I don't know how representative this is for the rest of the US, my guess is that PTC is still the exception and not the rule.
ATC and PTC are most certainly the exception versus the norm.
As I stated in a reply earlier to a poster falsely claiming that all "modern U.S. railroads utilize signaling, the fact is there are thousands of miles of un-signaled dark track in the U.S., these rails are operated under train orders and do so without incident, train orders are really nothing more than a dispatcher, by radio, telling a conductor you may operate your train between these two mileposts, in a certain direction, at a certain speed and then as the train approaches the last milepost and well within stopping distance of it, the conductor will contact the dispatcher and request another train order allowing the train to proceed into the next block and continue on its way.
These rails have no trackside signals and most of the time highway railgrade crossings are marked only with a couple of cross-bucks and a sign with stern warning for drivers to stop, look and listen before crossing the rails. Most drivers do, but some die when they do not.
The train has the right of way and the mass to enforce that rule...