Metrolink — which is funded in part by Metro — announced today that 49 more “automatic train stop” devices were being activated along its commuter rail network in Southern California.

From the news release:

The ATS system includes magnetic inductors placed next to the track at locations where the train is approaching a curve or speed change.  The ATS system sounds an audible alarm and flashing alert on the engineer’s control panel when the train passes over the inductor.  The train brakes are automatically applied if the engineer doesn’t push a button acknowledging the alert within approximately eight seconds.

The agency’s Board of Directors began installing the devices after the fatal collision of a Metrolink train and Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth last year. You can read the entire news release here.