Two years probably wasn’t going to be enough time for railroads to install crash-avoidance technology on 23,000 locomotives and 60,000 miles of tracks, in the biggest rail-safety project in U.S. history.
Then they encountered the Choctaw Nation, Muscogee and Navajo.
In May, the railroads and their regulators learned 565 American Indian tribes had the right to review, one by one, whether 22,000 antennae required for the system to work might be built on sacred ground. That’s as many wireless tower applications as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approves in two years.
WASHINGTON – Spurred by a deadly train crash in Los Angeles, Congress in 2008 passed with great fanfare legislation requiring the nation’s railroads to install a sophisticated collision-avoidance system by the end of 2015.
Five years later, an industry move to extend the deadline to 2020 is picking up steam on Capitol Hill.
WASHINGTON – It was an accident investigators say didn’t have to happen: Five years ago a commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles, killing 25 and injuring more than 100.
Technology is available to prevent the most catastrophic collisions, but the railroad industry and its allies in Congress are trying to push back a deadline for installing the systems until at least 2020.
After the recent disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is looking at possibly implementing positive train control (PTC) systems on its railroads.
In 2010 and 2012, two major train derailments have been linked to trainmen not following signal indications. The incident in 2010 at Saint-Charles-de-Bellechase, Quebec, only caused injuries and property damage, while the 2012 incident in Burlington, Ont., caused the deaths of three engineers.
In both cases, it was found that the trains were traveling at excessive speeds while switching tracks, having missed or misinterpreted signals.
Director of TSB rail and pipeline investigations Kirby Jang explains, “In Canada, we have a system called centralized traffic control, which provides visual signals, but there is no automated stopping or slowing of trains if the train crew were to exceed the limits of their authority.
“We believe that there’s a risk of serious train collisions and derailments if rail signals are not consistently recognized and followed. Really, what we’re trying to advocate is that further safety defenses should be implemented to ensure that signal indications of operating speed or operating limits are consistently recognized and followed. That’s a key finding and recommendation out of Burlington,” Jang said.
According to Jang, there are ongoing discussions about PTC systems, which would automatically reduce a train’s speed if it were moving too fast. The TSB is also looking at placing video and voice recording systems inside the cabs of locomotives as a source of data in the event of another derailment or train disaster like the one in Lac-Mégantic.
The TSB can only make recommendations to Transport Canada; it is then up to Transport Canada to decide whether or not they want to act on the recommendations made by the TSB.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation introduced a positive train control (PTC) extension bill. The bill seeks to extend the statutory deadline for PTC implementation by five years to Dec. 31, 2020, as well as provide another optional two-year extension on 60,000 miles of track across the country. Shortline railroads that operate on PTC-mandated track would receive an extension of five years if approved by the FRA.
Right now, the PTC implementation deadline is Dec. 31, 2015. The bill is based upon findings of the FRA in 2012 that identified several technical and programmatic problems with the implementation of PTC.
Passenger and freight railroads have expressed concern over meeting the current 2015 deadline, claiming they may be forced to stop operations to implement PTC or risk breaking the law by continuing to operate without it.
SMART Transportation Division National Legislative Director James Stem testified before the committee June 19 on PTC, as well as other issues.
“If Congress chooses to grant a blanket extension for PTC, the railroads that are behind on their implementation schedule today will further slow their progress, or just stop the process until that new extension expires,” Stem said.
“Any extension for PTC implementation should be on an individual basis, short in duration, six to 12 months, and only after identifying the reasons that the current implementation date is not obtainable.”
Some railroads, including Amtrak, BNSF and Metrolink in California, have announced they will be able to meet the statutory deadline and are continuing the implementation and testing of PTC components.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) introduced the bill.
The evening of Jan. 5, 2005, was dry and cool in Graniteville, S.C. At 6:10, a 12-car Norfolk Southern freight train pulled up to the Avondale Mills textile plant, and Jim Thornton, a conductor with 18 years’ experience, climbed down from the locomotive to open a switch and let the train roll onto a siding.
It was getting close to the hour by which, according to law, the crew had to quit for the day and rest.
WASHINGTON – The Federal Railroad Administration has granted railroads greater flexibility to determine on which lines positive train control (PTC) must be installed by the federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2015.
PTC initially was mandated for 70,000 track miles, but 10,000 of those miles are expected to be removed from PTC installation under the new FRA rule.
PTC is a crash-avoidance safety overlay system long supported by the National Transportation Safety Board and rail labor organizations. It utilizes the satellite global positioning system (GPS), wireless communications and central control centers to monitor trains and prevent collisions by automatically applying the brakes on trains exceeding authorized speeds, about to run a red light, violate a work zone or run through a switch left in the wrong position.
While the additional flexibility is expected to save railroads “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo, the FRA’s new rule does not change the Dec. 31, 2015 deadline for PTC installation.
Installation of PTC – on all Class I track carrying at least five million gross tons of freight annually, as well as on lines where intercity passenger trains and commuter trains operate — was required by the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
The 10,000 miles represents track over which freight railroads say neither passengers nor dangerous hazmat will be transported by the PTC implementation date. Under the new rule, the total amount of main line track required to have PTC will be less than 40 percent of the total main line miles in the county.
The Association of American Railroads had previously filed a federal lawsuit seeking the 10,000-mile scale back of the PTC mandate.
Railroads contended that the original mandate for PTC installation was based on outdated hazmat traffic data, and that railroads will not be transporting those hazmat cargos over the 10,000 miles of track covered by the latest FRA rule.
The FRA said that under the new rule, “railroads will have an easier time using safety measures other than PTC where appropriate, such as on track that won’t carry passenger trains or certain types of hazardous materials.”
The chief executive of Los Angeles Metrolink, John Fenton, who has taken the lead among railroads nationwide in advancing, investing in and implementing positive train control (PTC), is departing after two years on the job to head the Florida-based short line holding company Patriot Rail.
Patriot Rail owns 12 short line railroads operating in 12 states over some 500 miles of track. The UTU represents employees on four of those railroads. Patriot Rail is in the process of being acquired by Steel River Infrastructure Partners, which owns and operates port terminal and storage facilities and natural gas and electric transmission lines.
The UTU also represents conductors on Los Angeles Metrolink, whose commuter trains have operated under contract by Amtrak since June 2010.
Los Angeles Metrolink, America’s third largest commuter railroad, carrying 40,000 riders daily in six southern California counties, was rocked in 2008 when 25 people were killed and 135 injured in a horrific head-on crash with a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth, Calif. The National Transportation Board later blamed the accident primarily on the deceased Metrolink engineer said to have been texting on his cell phone and who ran a red stop signal. At that time, Metrolink trains were operated by Connex Railroad, a subsidiary of France-based Veolia Transport.
Fenton was hired as Metrolink CEO in the wake of the Chatsworth accident following a management shakeup that included, according to the Los Angeles Times, allegations of unaccounted for inventory and a sharply declining ridership.
The Los Angeles Times said that following Fenton’s arrival in April 2010, safety improved markedly, on-time performance improved, ridership grew and costs were reduced. Fenton oversaw the purchase of state-of-the-art rail cars with energy absorbing technology and took the lead among American railroads in pressing ahead with PTC and a timetable to have it operational by 2013, according to the Los Angeles Times.
PTC utilizes the satellite global positioning system (GPS), wireless communications and central control centers to monitor trains and prevent collisions by automatically applying the brakes on trains exceeding authorized speeds, about to run a red light, violate a work zone or run through a switch left in the wrong position.
Safety experts said the Chatsworth accident could have been avoided had PTC been installed. In embracing PTC technology, Fenton told a congressional hearing,“We don’t think there is any time to waste given the unforgiving nature of the environment in which we operate.” In bitter memory of the Chatsworth disaster, Fenton and Metrolink employees wear green wrist bands with the words, “Never Again.”
The Los Angeles Times quoted a safety expert at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering that Fenton’s “departure is a major loss for Southern California and Los Angeles. His safety-culture related accomplishments in such a short time, just two years, were monumental and unique in the country.” Metrolink partners with the Viterbi School of Engineering on safety advances.
Patriot Rail’s 12 short lines include:
* Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway in Montana
* Columbia & Cowitz Railway in Washington (UTU represented)
* DeQueen & Eastern Railway in Arkansas (UTU represented)
* Golden Triangle Railroad in Mississippi
* Louisiana & North West Railroad in Arkansas and Louisiana (UTU represented)
* Patriot Woods Railroad in Washington (UTU represented)
* Piedmont & Northern Railroad in North Carolina
* Sacramento Valley Railroad in California
* Temple & Central Texas Railway in Texas
* Tennessee Southern Railroad in Alabama and Tennessee
WASHINGTON – The FRA has has strengthened its positive train control (PTC) team, naming Mark Hartong as senior scientific technical adviser for railroad electronic systems within the FRA’s Office of Safety.
Hartong’s primary responsibility, said the agency, “will be to ensure that electronic technology is applied in a manner that will support the safety and security of freight and passenger transportation on the national railroad system.”
In announcing the appointment, the FRA said Hartong has “in-depth understanding of the other critical systems, including the locomotive electronics, communications systems and back office dispatch systems that must interface with PTC.”
Hartong earned a Ph.D. in information technology from George Mason University and also earned two masters degrees in software engineering and computer science. Prior to joining the FRA in 2003, he worked with Lockheed-Martin Corporation in the Undersea Surveillance Division as senior engineer for all combat and communications systems for nuclear attack submarines as well as the Trident class ballistic missile submarines.
Hartong served for 14 years in the U.S. Navy, achieving the rank of lieutenant commander.
Public transportation funding, transportation jobs, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement and Medicare are under a mean-spirited and sustained attack by congressional conservatives who are trying to muscle their agenda through Congress prior to the November elections.
The UTU and Sheet Metal Workers International Association – now combined into the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) – along with other labor organizations, public interest groups, congressional Democrats and moderate Republicans are working on Capitol Hill to block these attempts, which could be devastating to working families.
UTU National Legislative Director James Stem and SMWIA Director of Governmental Affairs Jay Potesta outlined the conservatives’ agenda that has surfaced in proposed congressional transportation reauthorization and budget legislation:
* Cut $31.5 billion in federal transportation spending, which would threaten some 500,000 American jobs.
* Eliminate federal spending for Amtrak and expansion of intercity rail-passenger service and high-speed rail, with a direct impact on jobs associated with that service.
* Gut federal spending for the Alaska Railroad, which would force elimination of scores of train and engine workers represented by the UTU.
* Delay implementation of positive train control, which is a modern technology to reduce train accidents and save lives and limbs.
* Eliminate federal spending for expansion of local and regional transit service as Americans scramble to find alternatives to driving in the face of soaring gasoline prices. The federal spending cut would prevent the return to work of furloughed workers from budget-starved local transit systems and likely cause layoffs of still more transit workers.
* Encourage privatization of local transit systems, which would open the door for non-union operators eager to pay substandard wages and eliminate employee health care insurance and other benefits.
* Remove any requirement for shuttle-van operators, whose vehicles cross state lines, from paying even minimum wage or overtime – a proposal, which if enacted, could lead to applying that legislation to interstate transit operations.
* Eliminate Railroad Retirement Tier I benefits that exceed Social Security benefits even though railroads and rail employees pay 100 percent of those benefits through payroll taxes, with no federal funds contributing to Tier I benefits that exceed what is paid by Social Security.
* Replace direct federal spending on Medicare in favor of handing out vouchers to be used to purchase private insurance, which will undercut the viability of Medicare.
* Provide large tax breaks to millionaires and preserve tax breaks for Wall Street hedge funds that cater to the wealthy, while cutting by two-thirds federal assistance to veterans and public schools.
The UTU member-supported political action committee (PAC) is helping to fund election campaigns by labor-friendly candidates, and a labor-wide “get out the vote” drive will go door-to-door across America in support of labor-friendly candidates in advance of November elections.
In the meantime, UTU and SMWIA legislative offices will continue their education campaign on Capitol Hill, visiting congressional offices to explain the economic devastation the current conservative agenda would impose on working families.
The chief executive of Los Angeles Metrolink, John Fenton, who has taken the lead among railroads nationwide in advancing, investing in and implementing positive train control (PTC), is departing after two years on the job to head the Florida-based short line holding company Patriot Rail.
WASHINGTON – The FRA has has strengthened its positive train control (PTC) team, naming Mark Hartong as senior scientific technical adviser for railroad electronic systems within the FRA’s Office of Safety.
Public transportation funding, transportation jobs, workplace safety, Railroad Retirement and Medicare are under a mean-spirited and sustained attack by congressional conservatives who are trying to muscle their agenda through Congress prior to the November elections.