A Bright Future For Railroad Signals

Steam locomotives moved trains across our vast railroad network protected by interlocking towers at key junctions where two railroads converged.  As the train thundered past, the tower operator hooped up the train orders, giving the crew instructions how to proceed.
Railroading is always on the move.  In Fostoria, Ohio, in 1927, centralized traffic control changed the era of the train order.
Trains needed to move more efficiently.  Rail traffic was on the rise.  More trains were meeting both on the mainline and on remote branches.  Centralized traffic control offered a solution to the obsolescence of the train order in that a dispatcher could control train meets, increase traffic flow and increase safety by being aware of each train's location.
With centralized traffic control and increased volume came the need for additional infrastructure.  More rails became double-tracked and additional miles of siding were added where trains could safely rest.  With this new trackage came increased signaling, with signaling came miles of thick expensive cable to relay signals.
Railroading drives our economy, however, with every ton of freight moved, many of us do not see its intense overhead.  Each mile of track must constantly be maintained.  Its signals must operate safely.  Rail cars must  constantly pass inspections.  Locomotives are constantly improved to increase fuel efficiency and lower emissions.
Whenever a fixed cost can be lowered in railroading, it is key to the system moving more smoothly.  If branch lines and short lines, which may only see two or three trains a day, can be made more profitable, this may even result in rail capitalizing on routes which could not have been possible.
Siemens Sinet, invented by Anton Reichlin,

makes this next step ahead in railroad signaling.  Sinet greatly reduces the infrastructure in railroad signaling by replacing cable-heavy, point-to-point connections with bus or ring structures.  This increase in efficiency will greatly increase the viability across the railroad, will lead to faster return on infrastructure investments and will make more and more rail lines viable.