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

  • Australia's ground breaking average speed enforcement
    February 1, 2012
    The speed enforcement system on the Hume Highway in Australia combines both spot and point-to-point solutions. Here, Redflex's Peter Whyte discusses its implementation. The Australian State of Victoria has achieved notable success in reducing casualty rates since launching a three-pronged road accident prevention initiative in the late-1980s.
    Read More
  • ITS World Congress debates perceptions of enforcement
    December 4, 2012
    The technical programme of this year’s ITS World Congress in Vienna includes a special session on the image of enforcement. ITS International examines the scale of the problem and what can be done about it. Debate on the merits and difficulties of enforcing speed limits appears centred on a conflict of principles. Put very simply, local communities, people living close to busy or hazardous roads, want to see traffic speeds calmed. Drivers on those roads, on the whole, want their principle of freedom to be m
    Read More
  • Tolling is a ‘powerful tool to maintain and manage an infrastructure network’
    August 15, 2017
    Officials have recently moved to scrap tolls on several highways for the first time in 40 years, bucking a national trend toward more tolls on mostly urban roadways to shift the costs of transportation to those who use the roads, writes Associated Press. A regional authority voted this week to eliminate tolls on the Cesar Chavez Border Highway in El Paso. On the same day, Dallas city council rejected plans to build a toll road along the Trinity River. The council's action appears to be the death knell for a
    Read More
  • European tunnel upgrades following new safety legislation
    August 20, 2015
    Across Europe there is a very mixed picture of compliance to latest safety standards for road tunnels. Best practice has emerged, however, in the wake of European legislation. Jon Masters reports High profile fatal fires following accidents in the Mont Blanc, Tauern and Gotthard tunnels prompted the 2004 European Union Directive 2004/54 on road tunnel safety. This meant all EU member states would have to meet new standards of safety in road tunnels by 30 April 2014. The Directive applied to all tunnels over
    Read More

Highlighted Content