SMART UnionWASHINGTON – A group of Connecticut lawmakers is calling for action on rail-safety technology that could prevent future train collisions like the fatal “deadman’s curve” crash late last year in the Bronx.
The Positive Train Control technology, or PTC would override human error by automatically slowing or stopping trains that are speeding, entering work zones or otherwise encountering danger.
Read the complete story at the Connecticut Post.
The railroad industry took a step toward resolving a dispute with American Indian tribes that has stalled the biggest rail-safety project in U.S. history.
The $13.2 billion build-out of networks of sensors, which automatically slow or stop trains if a crash seems probable, has been held up as some tribes exercised their rights to review whether tower construction would affect their sacred grounds. The Federal Communications Commission said today that it reached an agreement with seven rail companies to begin testing on 11,000 poles that had already been constructed.
Read the complete story at Bloomberg News.
WASHINGTON – In a new report updating the industry’s progress on installing positive train control, the nation’s freight railroads said that a year-long moratorium on installing 20,000 communication antennas imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, followed by a lengthy federal approval process mandated by the agency, has seriously delayed the implementation of nationwide interoperable PTC. Whereas freight railroads once projected that by 2015 they would have PTC installed on 40 percent of the network mandated by FRA, they now believe thanks to the FCC issues only 20 percent of the PTC network will be up and running by the Congressionally imposed deadline.
“Everyone in the industry is greatly frustrated at the inability to move forward and do what we need to do to advance PTC installation,” said Association of American Railroads President and CEO Edward R. Hamberger. “It’s been two steps forward, three steps back for months and we simply don’t have the certainty we need to move ahead and get PTC tested, fully functioning, certified and ready to go.”
Causing the timing for installation to be delayed significantly, Hamberger said, was an FCC directive to suspend installation of approximately 20,000 communications antennas necessary to for PTC to work until the antennas are assessed through the FCC’s environmental and historical evaluation process. The problem, Hamberger noted, is that how the thousands of antennas are to be reviewed has yet to be determined. The majority of the antennas at issue are between 10- to 60-feet tall, and roughly 97 percent are located on railroad property, he added.
The freight rail industry is expected to install PTC on approximately 60,000 miles of mainline track and has spent approximately $4 billion to date implementing the automatic braking system Congress called for as part of the 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act.
AAR’s report to FRA summarizing the freight railroad industry’s progress, available here, includes an in-depth look at issues, such as delays in availability of critical back-office-server software, complexities of mapping an ever-changing nationwide rail network, and taking a phased approach to testing and implementing PTC on each railroad’s PTC network.
Hamberger noted that despite the challenges, railroads so far have been able to make progress in some areas of PTC implementation, including:
WASHINGTON – Railroads warned Congress again Wednesday they wouldn’t meet a 2015 deadline for automatic braking on trains, but engineers and safety officials urged adoption of the technology that might have prevented the fatal Metro North crash in New York this past December.
Freight railroads have spent $4 billion for braking equipment for trains to sense speed limits and track signals automatically, but the effort could ultimately cost that industry $8 billion, according to Edward Hamberger, CEO of the Association of American Railroads.
Read the complete story at lohud.com.
The Metrolink passenger railroad Thursday (Feb. 20) will become the first commuter service in the nation to roll out a sophisticated collision avoidance system designed to overcome human error.
Had so-called positive train control been in place five years ago, experts say, it would have prevented Metrolink’s deadly Chatsworth crash. In that accident, an engineer missed a red stop signal while text-messaging on his cellphone and struck a Union Pacific freight train head-on. Twenty-five people died and 135 were injured.
Read the complete story at the Los Angeles Times.
Regulators proposed a streamlined process for American Indian tribes to complete reviews that railroads have said make it difficult to meet deadlines for finishing the biggest rail-safety project in U.S. history.
Tribes would get less time to review, for historic significance, proposed locations for 22,000 U.S. communications antennae and would need to accept bulk applications for all equipment proposed in a county, the Federal Communications Commission said in a notice posted on its website yesterday.
Read the complete story at Bloomberg Businessweek.
Last month, a Metro-North Railroad train plunged off the track while taking a sharp curve at 82 miles per hour, killing four and seriously injuring 20. In the aftermath, some experts said the disastrous results could have been prevented by positive train control (PTC). An automatic braking system built to slow down dangerous trains, PTC has been available since 1990. But the lifesaving tech remains widely unadopted.
“The Metro-North accident claimed four lives,” says Robert Sumwalt, a vice chairman at the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB). “We looked at the situation and said, had PTC been implemented, it would have prevented the accident, more than likely.”
Read the complete story at Popular Mechanics.
We talk a lot about our national debt. But the largest debt we owe is to those who will come after us in this nation. Our fulfillment of that debt should underpin the actions we take right now.
Our national infrastructure forms the bedrock foundation upon which our economic future is built as America competes in the global marketplace. Railroads — both passenger and freight — are essential elements in the national transportation network that will help deliver future economic growth to communities across the country.
But for the rail network to function at its best, the rail industry must further improve safety.
Read more at USA Today.
U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) has proposed the Commuter Rail Passenger Safety Act to help commuter railroads, such as MTA Metro-North Railroad, fund and implement positive train control (PTC) systems.
Maloney announced he would introduce the legislation earlier this week after touring the site of Metro-North’s deadly derailment in the Bronx, N.Y. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that PTC would have prevented the crash, Maloney said in a press release.
Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.
U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) has proposed the Commuter Rail Passenger Safety Act to help commuter railroads, such as MTA Metro-North Railroad, fund and implement positive train control (PTC) systems.
Maloney announced he would introduce the legislation earlier this week after touring the site of Metro-North’s deadly derailment in the Bronx, N.Y. On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that PTC would have prevented the crash, Maloney said in a press release.
Read the complete story at Progressive Railroading.