Rail industry, regulators debate feasibility of PTC

US rail industry officials and federal accident regulators have disagreed about the viability of a looming mandate that most US railways be equipped with automated control systems by the end of next year. Congress is requiring that most major railroad companies install automated systems known as positive train control (PTC) by December 2015. Automated train systems have gained renewed attention after a spate of high-profile accidents on passenger and freight railways, including most recently a Decem
March 10, 2014 Read time: 3 mins

US rail industry officials and federal accident regulators have disagreed about the viability of a looming mandate that most US railways be equipped with automated control systems by the end of next year.

Congress is requiring that most major railroad companies install automated systems known as positive train control (PTC) by December 2015.

Automated train systems have gained renewed attention after a spate of high-profile accidents on passenger and freight railways, including most recently a December derailment of a freight train in North Dakota that resulted in 400,000 gallons of crude oil being spilled.

The law requiring the implementation of automated train control systems by 2015 has been on the books since 2008.

However, Association of American Railroads President Ed Hemberger told members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that the automated systems have proven to be more difficult to install than regulators imagined.

"PTC is an unprecedented challenge, both in terms of the technologies to be used and the integration of those technologies," Hemberger told the panel in testimony submitted before Thursday's hearing.

"The railroad industry began working several years ago with the 2115 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to licence the wireless spectrum necessary for PTC,” he said.  However, under the FCC’s interpretation of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), railroads must ascertain, on an antenna-by-antenna basis, if the antennas will negatively impact areas of historic, cultural, or religious significance.

Hemberger said the railroads were in agreement with federal regulators about the importance of installing automated train control systems to boost safety.  But the rail association chief said the only solution to the challenges facing the train industry was to push back the 2015 deadline for them to automate.

"The bottom line is that without further changes to the FCC approval process, the timeline for ultimate deployment of PTC will be delayed significantly," Hemberger said.

5628 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Vice Chairman Chris Hart said the safety benefits of automating trains should outweigh the rail industry's technical concerns.

"Implementation of PTC systems was included on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List when the list was First published in 1990 and has remained on the list almost continuously since that time," Hart said. "We may never eliminate human error from the railroad system, but PTC provides a level of redundancy to protect trains and those on board when human factors, such as distraction or fatigue, might otherwise set an accident sequence into motion." 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Uber halts autonomous vehicle testing in California
    January 3, 2017
    Ride-sharing company Uber Technologies has halted its self-driving car testing in San Francisco just one week the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) revoked registrations for the vehicles, saying the company did not have the necessary state permits for autonomous driving. Uber, which had been testing the cars for just one week, is expanding is self-driving testing in Arizona. It has been testing autonomous cars in Pittsburgh since September. Anthony Levandowski, head of Uber’s Advanced Tech
    Read More
  • Roadside infrastructure key to in-vehicle deployment
    November 28, 2013
    The implementation of in-vehicle systems will require multilateral cooperation, as Honda’s Sue Bai explains to Colin Sowman. Vehicle manufacturers will shape the future direction of in-vehicle ITS systems, but they can’t do it on their own. So to find out what they see on the horizon, and the obstacles they face, ITS International spoke to Sue Bai, principal engineer in the Automobile Technology Research Department with Honda R&D Americas. Not only does she play an important role in Honda’s US-based ITS
    Read More
  • CES 2019 says hello to the future
    February 20, 2019
    The launch of the latest gadgets has made the Consumer Electronics Show into tech heaven for geeks worldwide – but there is a serious ITS component, too. Ben Spencer braves the bright lights of Las Vegas to find out more The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been the showcase for some of the world’s most iconic gadgets – from VCRs to the Commodore 64, and from the camcorder to the launch of HDTV. This has made CES a mecca for tech heads all over the world since it began in the 1960s, but these days it
    Read More
  • IBM develops plan to ease Nairobi’s traffic jams
    May 14, 2012
    A team of IBM experts assigned to Nairobi have provided a framework and roadmap to the city to improve the flow of road traffic and increase revenues from the transportation sector. The recommendations complement Nairobi's considerable on-going investment in underlying roadway infrastructure and include making traffic information more readily available to citizens, motorists, police, policymakers and planners so that better transportation decisions can be made in the near and long term.
    Read More

Highlighted Content