The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration released the quarterly status update for on the railroads’ self-reported progress towards the implementation of positive train control (PTC) systems on Wednesday.
According to the report, nearly all railroads subject to the statutory mandate to implement the control are on track to complete the implementation by Dec. 30, 2020. As of June 30, only 700 route miles remain to be activated.
“I am highly pleased by the amount of progress railroads have made moving toward fully implementing PTC systems,” said FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory. “While more work lies ahead, the significant advancements made thus far are encouraging. I applaud all railroads involved in this unprecedented effort for their intensive collaboration to get all concerned to the finish line.”
PTC systems are in operation on 98.8 percent of the route miles subject to the mandate, or 56,846 miles.
Additionally, the railroad industry continues to work toward interoperability testing and to meeting the interoperability requirement under FRA regulations. Host railroads report that 65.5 percent of the 220 host-tenant railroad relationships have reached interoperability.
Two host railroads are currently at risk of not fully implementing PTC on all required main lines, the report said – New Jersey Transit (NJT) and New Mexico Rail Runner Express. The report said two other railroads were removed from the at-risk list based on their progress in the second quarter of 2020 – Northeast Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad (Metra) and TEXRail. Both railroads have entered the revenue service demonstration portion of the implementation on all of their main lines, and have submitted their PTC Safety Plans, the report said, and are now focusing on completing interoperability by the end of the year.
“This is the kind of synergy, partnership, and cooperation we want to encourage,” said Batory
FRA provides additional staff resources to those railroads at risk of not being able to complete the implementation on time. The Department has provided nearly $3.4 billion in grants and loans to support the implementation.