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

  • Changes needed to Italy's enforcement tendering?
    February 2, 2012
    Fixed penalty notices KRIA's co-founder and President Stefano Arrighetti discusses the events which led up to investigations into the fraudulent use of his company's T-RED red light enforcement system and his house arrest. Looking forward, he says, there needs to be fundamental reform of how Italy goes about the enforcement contract tendering process
    Read More
  • Running on empty
    May 2, 2018
    Drivers are an increasingly rare species on Europe’s commuter metros as unattended train operation is embraced. David Crawford takes a low-speed tour of the continent’s capitals to see what’s happening. Unattended train operation (UTO) is fast becoming the norm for Europe’s metros, on existing as well as new lines. November 2017 statistics published by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) show the continent as having 28% of the global total of route km on lines operating at the ultimate
    Read More
  • Russia invests in ITS technology
    May 11, 2012
    Russia’s transport systems are developing on a grand scale with ITS central to the plans, thanks in no small part to a recently relaunched ITS Russia. Jon Masters interviews the organisation’s chief executive officer Vladimir Kryuchkov Over coming years many of the biggest deployments of new technology for transport are likely to be seen in Russia. For a political and economic superpower, the world’s biggest country has only recently started to harness ITS for the good of its transport networks. But the sca
    Read More
  • Framework for trialling road freight ITS begins in Australia
    February 12, 2015
    The Victoria Government in Australia is sponsoring a new framework to trial technology on the state’s road network that will improve the operation of heavy vehicles and promote Victoria as Australia’s freight and logistics capital. Minister for Roads, Luke Donnellan, called on the heavy vehicle, freight and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) industries to develop innovative approaches to using intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and associated technology to improve the productivity and safety of ro
    Read More

Highlighted Content