This year, Railway Age and RT&S are pleased to venture to Pittsburgh on Oct. 1-2 for the much-anticipated 2025 Light Rail Conference, featuring a packed lineup of LRT (light rail transit) professionals who are significantly influencing today’s rail transit industry. Among the reasons to attend is “LRT Train Protection on the Boston Green Line,” presented by Robert Hanczor, CEO and Founder of Piper Networks Rail North American Streetcar Market Sales Manager.
LRT Train Protection on the Boston Green Line
Piper is currently deploying the Green Line Train Protection System for the MBTA in Boston. The system includes three critical safety deliverables, including: collision avoidance for Green Line trains, overspeed protection, and full territory response to signals and speed changes. The GLTPS relies on Piper’s Cenelec SIL-4 Ultra-Wideband positioning technology to localize trains operating both at grade and in the underground central subway areas. Onboard displays provide safety alerts for operators, and the system implements safety braking to ensure safe operations. This presentation will describe the deployment strategy for surveying the Green Line territory, building comprehensive onboard databases for relevant speed, grade, and infrastructure points. Robert will also cover wayside installation methods as well as back office integrations for control center oversight of rail operations.
Meet Robert Hanczor
Robert Hanczor, Ph.D. is the CEO and Founder of Piper Networks. He leads a team dedicated to improving transportation safety with advanced sensor technologies for precision localization, collision avoidance, rail network surveying, digital twin software, maintenance vehicle protection, intrusion detection, and track worker visibility. A 30-year software engineering veteran, Robert guides the research and development of new technologies that can accelerate safety advancements for both transit and freight rail applications. Under Robert’s leadership, Piper has expanded its portfolio of expertise with an emphasis on safety certification of its product line. Piper is currently deploying the Green Line Train Protection System for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
This edition of our annual in-person Light Rail Conference will be filled with dynamic panels and the chance to network with a wide-reaching group of like-minded professionals. It offer a comprehensive review of the specialized technical, operational, environmental, and socio-economic issues associated with LRT in an urban environment. All this will take place at the Fairmont Pittsburgh.
Program Highlights
Presented Oct. 1-2 at the Fairmont Pittsburgh, the 2025 Railway Age and RT&S Light Rail Conference is a must-attend premier conference on LRT for transportation professionals in planning, operations, civil engineering, signaling and train control, and vehicle engineering. Students at the undergraduate and graduate levels are also welcome.
Key sessions will focus on:
- Strategic insights into major new-builds and expansion projects.
- Engineering sessions illustrating how to best support long-term efficiency and safety.
- Capital program oversight, risk mitigation, and performance tracking.
- Resilience planning, sharing adaptive strategies for extreme weather events.
- Improvements to customer-facing technologies such as fare collection, communications and security.
- The viability and scalability of alternative propulsion technologies.
- Confronting funding challenges.
In addition to Robrt Hanczor, transit leaders on the program include Andy Lukaszewicz and Justin Selepack of Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT), Bryan K. Moore and Casey Blaze of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), Henry Posner, Ida Posner and Nate Asplund of Railroad Development Corporation (RDC), Harry Skoblenick of Alstom, Barbara M. Schroeder of Benesch, Rachel J. Burckardt of WSP USA, and many more.
Supporting Organizations
Industry support for the Railway Age / RT&S 2025 Light Rail Conference is strong, including sponsorships from 4AI Systems, Piper Networks, Benesch, RDC and Stadler. To inquire about sponsorship opportunities, contact Jonathan Chalon at jchalon@sbpub.com or (212) 620-7224.
