Railroads won't meet safety technology installation deadline, report reveals
Most freight railroads and passenger trains will not meet their December 31 deadline to install technology that could prevent them from going over speed limits and 聽avoid accidents, the Federal Railroad Administration said in a report to Congress on Friday.
Congress had set the December deadline for rail companies to install Positive Train Control (PTC), a GPS-based technology that can prevent train collisions, over-speed derailments, and even unauthorized incursion into work areas. But according to the report given to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees,聽only 39 percent of the country鈥檚 largest railroad companies will have their trains equipped with the technology by the end of the year, and only 34 percent of the employees who need to be trained to use the equipment will be. The report also revealed that only 29 percent of commuter railroads will have the technology fully installed by the end of 2015. The delays may have been caused by the cost and complexity of installing such a safety system, observers say.
鈥淧TC is expensive, and many railroads were late getting started. Freight railroads often host commuter railroad operations on their tracks, and they also frequently use the tracks of their competitors. Developing PTC systems that can be used by multiple railroads has added a layer of complexity to the effort,鈥� reported Joan Lowy for .
鈥淢any railroads also ran into unanticipated difficulties acquiring the radio spectrum necessary to make the technology work, and getting government permission to erect thousands of antennas along tracks,鈥� she added.
Nevertheless, the technology itself is not new, and federal regulators have been calling for its installation for years.聽Despite the reasons for the delays, many say that the technology鈥檚 installation is imperative. According to , over 300 lives could have been saved and over 7,000 injuries avoided over the past 46 years if the PTC had been installed.
Congress began pushing for the new technology after several high profile trail collisions took place, including one in California in 2008 that resulted in the death of 25 people. Most recently, investigators determined that the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May could have been avoided if the PTC had been in place. 聽Eight people died during that accident and around 200 were injured.
Despite the December deadline, lawmakers had already anticipated that the installation of the PTC would be delayed. Recently, as part of a passed in the Senate, funds were allocated to the Department of Transportation to help it install the PTC technology. The Senate bill also envisions that the deadline will be pushed back to 2018.
Some lawmakers, however, were unhappy about the provision.
鈥淚t should be done immediately. There shouldn鈥檛 be an extension,鈥� Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told . 鈥淕iven the high number of accidents, and given the fact that P.T.C. is really effective, they should stick with 2015.鈥�
Amtrak, meanwhile, has confirmed that it will be able to meet the original December 31 deadline for installation on all of its trains on the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston.
The railroad administration, however, said that it doesn't expect the technology to be fully installed on all commuter lines until 2020.聽
