Vehicle control system and method

A system comprising:

• one or more controllers configured to:
• determine one or more of a required tractive effort or a required braking effort to propel a vehicle system at a determined speed;
• determine one or more of a throttle setting of a propulsion system or a brake setting of a brake system of the vehicle system that will provide one or more of the required tractive effort or the required braking effort;
• communicate a control signal from a remote controller device to an onboard controller device of the vehicle system;
• and
• operate one or more of the propulsion system at the throttle setting or the brake system at the brake setting with the control signal to move the vehicle sy stem at the determined speed.

A method, comprising:

• calculating a first grade of a vehicle system, the vehicle system comprising a propulsion system and a plurality of vehicles;
• estimating a second grade of the vehicle system;
• obtaining a third grade of the vehicle system from a database;
• determining from the first grade, the second grade, and third grade, a corrected grade of the vehicle system;
• and
• determining from the corrected grade a required tractive effort of the propulsion system to propel the vehicle system at a determined speed.