About the FRA DOTX-220
The Office of Safety owns and operates the DOTX-220 to support its mission to reduce track geometry caused derailments nationwide. The DOTX-220 is a towed vehicle that surveys approximately 40,000 miles of United States mainline railroad each year.
The DOTX-220:
- Entered service in 2007
- Operates in either direction in towed mode
- Is equipped with a track geometry measurement system to measure gage, alignment and track surface
- Is equipped with a vehicle track interaction (VTI) system to measure truck and car body forces in g's
- Is equipped with a differential global positional system to provide high accuracy GPS coordinates to each foot surveyed