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

  • Peter Norton: “My fear is that the technology itself is mistaken for the answer”
    August 5, 2022
    Peter Norton, author of Autonorama, tells Adam Hill why automakers kept the consumer dissatisfied, why Futurama got such a hold on the public imagination – and about how active travel can be promoted
    Read More
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
    Read More
  • Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    July 24, 2017
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
    Read More
  • Øresund bridges the front line for border crossing traffic
    September 15, 2016
    Timothy Compston considers the challenges faced by the operators of the Øresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden, the largest structure of its kind across Europe. In light of the concerns about the ongoing security threat and the unprecedented flow of migrants, many of the countries that make up the Schengen Area in Europe have re-introduced border controls. For its part, Sweden has rolled out ID checks for train, bus and ferry passengers from Denmark placing the landmark Øresund Bridge very much on the fr
    Read More

Highlighted Content