The motive power management function at a railroad can be significantly improved thanks to more timely and accurate information. With earlier and more reliable knowledge of train and locomotive performance and demands for power, motive power managers can improve their forward planning, which leads to improved locomotive utilization and better on-time train performance. Advanced Train Control Systems (ATCS) can be an important source of information for motive power management. With their train location, locomotive health, and work order reporting systems, ATCS have the potential of increasing accuracy to near 100 percent and reducing to a matter of seconds the time lag between an event and when that event becomes known to motive power managers. For this more timely and accurate information to be exploited, it must be organized and presented to the motive power managers in an efficient manner. In addition, there must be established a mechanism for timely communication to field forces of the motive power managers' plans. To achieve this, a computerized motive power control system was designed and implemented at Canadian National Railways. It consists of graphic displays of current train and locomotive location and status, alerts that highlight critical new information, functions for motive power planning, and facilities for communicating plans to field forces. With the motive power system in place, and gathering its information from ATCS, managers know about and can respond immediately to changes in train and locomotive demand and performance. Although ATCS are not a prerequisite for achieving benefits from an improved management control system, an effective management control system for trains and locomotives is a prerequisite for achieving full benefits from ATCS.

Railroad motive power is an expensive asset that requires efficient management. Canadian National Railway (CN) operates a fleet of 2,000 diesel locomotives on a 50,000-km railroad that spans Canada from Halifax on the Atlantic coast to Vancouver on the Pacific coast. Like many railroads, CN manages its motive power from one central control center. CN's motive power control center is responsible for monitoring and distributing locomotives, vans (cabooses), and end-of-train devices to meet the needs of more than 700 trains each day. It must operate these trains with as few locomotives as possible, but not delay any trains because of a lack of power. It must balance the flow of locomotives to take into account future demand and must meet locomotive maintenance requirements. As of the mid-1980s, the center was principally a manual operation essentially unchanged since the conversion to diesel