Congress recently made a controversial move extending by three full years a deadline for the installation and implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), a much needed automated railway safety technology designed to monitor locomotive operations along 60,000 miles of track. Even more controversial is the revelation that such technology has been available for more than three decades.
A recent New York Times article revealed that technology similar to PTC was developed back in the 1980s by Richard M. Bressler, chairman of the Burlington Northern Railroad. He came upon the idea while traveling by corporate jet and wondering if the same technology used by airlines to track the locations of planes and operations of pilots could be applied to the rail industry. Soon after, Bressler's employees had developed the Advanced Railroad Electronics System (ARES) and installed it for testing on several trains traveling a section of track in Minnesota.
Among the key features was the ability for dispatchers to stop trains automatically if an engineer exceeded posted speed limits. That's a hard pill to swallow considering that this very technology could have prevented the May derailment of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia that killed eight people. Though implementation of the highly similar PTC had been mandated by December 31, America's railway workers and passengers now will have to wait an additional three years for this potentially life-saving technology. Several rail companies complained of prohibitive costs and claimed concerns of an "unproven and untested" safety system, while safety officials counter that PTC is proven effective and that rail companies had plenty of time to comply.
"No one is talking about putting a man on the moon or on Mars," Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut recently told reporters. "We're talking about a technology that was in place in the 1980s, and the failure to implement it is costing lives."
Indeed, since 2004, nearly 80 deaths and more than 1,400 injuries could have been prevented if railroads had installed a system like positive train control, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The good news is that, according to the Association of American Railroads, the industry has spent nearly $6 billion so far to install safety technology. It simply can't come soon enough.
If you or someone you love suffers an injury because of a train or railway related safety issue, contact Jacksonville's Rail Justice at 888-519-RAIL.
