The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced Wednesday that it had released the Third Quarter update on railroads’ progress towards fully implementing positive train control systems.
In 2008, Congress passed the Rail Safety Improvement Act that required PTC systems to be fully implemented by Class 1 railroads’ main lines that transport poison or toxic-by-inhalation hazardous material, as well as any main lines with regularly scheduled intercity or commuter rail passenger service. In October 2015, Congress extended the deadline to Dec. 31, 2018, and required FRA to approve any railroad’s request for an “alternative schedule and sequence” with a final deadline of no later than Dec. 31, 2020.
FRA’s report provided a status update of railroads’ progress as of Sept. 30, 2020. PTC technology remains to be activated on approximately 223 required route miles, based on railroads’ self-reporting.
“Full implementation of PTC is in sight, owing to everyone’s unparalleled cooperation and determination,” said FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory. “I’m incredibly proud of the intensive collaborations we have forged. Once complete, railroads, rail workers, and rail passengers will all benefit from this transformational accomplishment in railroad safety.”
PTC systems are either operational or in the advanced testing phase, known as revenue service demonstration (RSD) on 99.6 percent of the 57,537 route miles subject to the legislation. The FRA said this number represents an 0.8 percent increase over the second-quarter report and indicates the PTC technology was activated on an additional 468 miles during the third quarter. Only 223 miles of railroad subject to the legislation is left to be addressed.
The report said that railroads have also made gains towards completing interoperability testing and meeting the interoperability requirements under the statute. FRA said 84 percent of the 219 applicable host railroads reported that interoperability had been achieved, an 18.6 percentage point increase over the second-quarter report.
The agency said that only one railroad, New Jersey Transit, is at risk of not fully implementing PTC technology by the deadline. FRA said it will continue to direct resources and technical assistance to the transit agency.