Vehicle control system

A method comprising:

• receiving vehicle makeup information from multiple vehicles in a multi-vehicle system, the vehicle makeup information representing one or more characteristics of the vehicles, the vehicle makeup information received at a controlling vehicle of the vehicles in the multi-vehicle system that controls movement of the multi-vehicle system;
• receiving, at the controlling vehicle, locations from location-determining devices respectively onboard the vehicles in the multi-vehicle system;
• determining a sequence of the vehicles in the multi-vehicle system using the locations of the vehicles that are received at the controlling vehicle;
• and
• controlling, with the controlling vehicle, operation of the multi-vehicle system using a combination of the vehicle makeup information received from the vehicles, the locations of the vehicles, and the sequence of the vehicles;
• determining a state of a first brake in the multi-vehicle system, wherein at least a second brake in the multi-vehicle system is controlled based on the state of the first brake and based on the location of at least the second brake, wherein the first brake is disposed onboard a first vehicle of the vehicles in the multi-vehicle system and the state that is determined indicates that the first brake has failed, and further comprising:
• determining that the second brake is disposed onboard a second vehicle of the vehicles in the multi-vehicle system that is within a threshold distance from the first vehicle;
• and changing engagement of the second brake based on the state of the first brake and the second vehicle being within the threshold distance from the first vehicle.