Vehicle control system and method

A vehicle control system comprising:

• a controller configured to receive a current commanded speed that a vehicle system is to move, the controller also configured to determine a current moving speed at which the vehicle system is moving and to calculate a reference shaped speed at which one or more of a propulsion system or a brake system of the vehicle system is directed to operate to cause the current moving speed of the vehicle system to approach the current commanded speed,
• the reference speed determined by the controller based on a reference shaping model that changes the reference speed based on relative values of the current commanded speed, a previous commanded speed that the vehicle system previously was commanded to move, the current moving speed of the vehicle system, and a previous reference shaped speed,
• the controller configured to control the one or more of the propulsion system or the brake system to operate to cause the vehicle system to move at the reference shaped speed that is calculated.