In October, House and Senate lawmakers made a controversial move by extending the December 31 deadline that America's railroads had been given to implement new safety technology known as Positive Train control, or PTC. Now, Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg has served notice, essentially telling rail companies that she expects their strict adherence to the new 2018 deadline.
"The focus has to remain on getting PTC up and running and implemented as soon as possible," Feinberg said in a recent speech at a railroad conference. "I recognize that the legislation allows 2018 to be the goal and there to be a potential extension beyond 2018 to 2020. But the deadline is 2018. If you need to get to 2020, there are certain boxes that have to be checked in order to get there."
PTC is designed to monitor locomotive operations along 60,000 miles of track and to help keep trains from derailing by automatically slowing or stopping a train when the system senses a potentially dangerous situation. The FRA mandated installation of PTC in America's trains and set the initial deadline back in 2008. Yet, after seven years, multiple rail companies claimed that they hadn't been given adequate time to meet the requirements and that attempts to do so would be costly and ultimately unsuccessful. Against recommendations by many safety officials, lawmakers granted the three-year deadline.
Safety experts say PTC could have prevented the deaths of eight people in the Philadelphia Amtrak derailment that made headlines in May, as well as those of 288 other passengers and train crew members killed in train accidents since 1969. It's been called "arguably the single-most important rail safety development in more than a century" by federal regulators.
In a Nov. 5 talk to the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, Feinberg made clear that the agency she leads will continue to press the railroads to meet all PTC implementation requirements on time.
"Over the last year, I am sure you have observed that FRA is in a much more aggressive posture on PTC, and everyone should expect for that posture to continue," she said. "The Amtrak accident in Philadelphia remains a stark reminder of both what can happen without PTC, and the sense of urgency required to prevent a similar accident in the future."
We here at Rail Justice are closely following efforts by railways to implement PTC and other safety technologies, policies and procedures. If you are injured or suffer losses due to negligence on the part of a railroad company or employee, report the incident, get medical attention and call 888-519-RAIL to speak with a railroad injury attorney.
