APCO won't be the entity responsible for the spectrum.. The Railroad Radio Service has its own coordinators. Your info on new freqs is much appreciated, last I heard there were not going to go narrowband, so apparently they are adding a few new freqs,.. The original RR freqs will not change with digital conversion. If all conversion takes place as scheduled,.. the RR service will be fully digital capable by 2012.
The only relevancy with APCO, will be that the APCO-25 standard seems to be the standard adopted by all communications entities for digital emplementation.
UPDATE: After calling the CN/IC McComb Dispatch Office, I found out that the new freqs are supposed to indeed be 107-199, and eventually replace the originals, but that will be many years down the road as the old liscenses expire (most of them have recently been renewed and do not expire untill 2014 or later) this will allow time for reprogramming, and seamless integration with the system. The newer freqs will begin usage in 2005 through 2006 on some systems, with CN not expected to begin testing them untill 2006, with slow transitioning from 2008 to 2012. Full switchover should occur soon thereafter and abandonment of old freqs occuring during this time. There is a lot to be done- all current loco radios must be replaced, dispatch terminals replaced, HT's replaced, mobiles in the vehicles replaced, and then training on the new system. This alone is going to cost CN/IC nearly 10 million at lowest estimated cost. All this has to be done not only here, but nationwide for all Rail Corps.
