On July 31, a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation revealed that multiple passenger and freight railroads are still struggling to fully implement positive train control (PTC) technology on their trains. Apparently, issues including software challenges and limited vendor resources have caused some railroads to fall behind in meeting the impending Dec. 31, 2020 final PTC deadline.
PTC is a safety technology that can prevent train accidents by automatically stopping trains. The PTC requirement was originally largely prompted by a tragic train collision in 2008 that killed 25 and injured 135 in Chatsworth, California. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Chatsworth incident could have been prevented by PTC technology. The NTSB also released a report saying that a 2017 train derailment that killed three passengers and injured 65 others would also have been preventable with PTC.
By the 2020 deadline, Class I railroads must have PTC fully installed and operational. While many railroads have already accomplished this, others are still at the first steps of implementation. During the hearing, Director of Physical Infrastructure Susan Fleming commented on the work that still needs to be done: “I think [railroads] are taking this very seriously, but that being said, we only have four that have crossed the finish line. We have 11 [railroads] that are still in the early stages, and we have some pretty complex hurdles to get through, whether it’s limited number of vendors, or whether it’s the software issues.” Under the mandate, railroads must also make their PTC systems interoperable, meaning that two different rail companies can send and receive signals between them, which is a complex process that requires weeks to months of preparation and testing.
According to the Federal Railroad Association, 87 percent of 58,000 railroad miles and 91 percent of Class 1 required main lines had operational PTC systems as of June 30, 2019. Even so, Senator Maria Cantwell criticized the lack of full compliance during the hearing, saying that “it’s unacceptable in 2019 we still have not fully implemented this important safety [feature]. And even when PTC has been fully implemented, according to the Federal Railroad Administration, there will still be miles and miles of tracks that have not been part of PTC - they will be exempted, including 1,400 used by Amtrak.”
With an original PTC implementation of Dec. 31, 2015 and a pattern of missed deadlines followed by extensions, it remains unclear whether PTC operations will be fully operational by the end of 2020.
