PTC implementation delay coming?

[afigg]

Four US Senators are introducing a bill to postpone the final implementation date of Positive Train Control by 5 years to 2020. With the Chairman of the Senate Transportation committee among the 4 submitting the bill and the deadline coming up, I would give good odds that this delay is going to be passed by the Senate and quite likely, the House as well. This has implications for Amtrak and the commuter railroads, as it could give Amtrak a break on meeting the deadline as well.

Railway Age: PTC relief on the way? Excerpt:

The U.S. railroad industry has been scrambling since 2008 to meet the requirements of an unfunded federal government mandate—namely, having Positive Train Control installed and fully operational by Dec. 31, 2015 on 60,000 miles of track where hazmat and passenger trains operate. Parallel to the PTC initiative has been a battle waged on Capitol Hill to extend the end-of-the-year deadline. That effort may be paying off, and the railroads may one day be grateful that they have a Thune on their side.

On Wednesday, March 4, 2015, U.S. Senator John Thune (R-S.Dak.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, along with Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), introduced the Positive Train Control (PTC) Extension Bill. This legislation would extend the statutory deadline for PTC implementation by five years to Dec. 31, 2020, and provide an optional two-year extension if Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) approval is granted. Short lines that operate on PTC-mandated track would also receive a five-year extension.

The bill is similar to S.1462, a PTC extension bill also introduced by Thune on Aug. 1, 2013 and also cosponsored by Blunt, McCaskill, and Pryor. At the time, the U.S. Senate was in Democratic control, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation was chaired by now-retired Jay Rockefeller, who represented the coal-mining state of West Virginia, and who led efforts on Capitol Hill to reregulate the railroads. S.1462 passed the Senate in 2014, but was not enacted.

 

[anonymouse engineer]

i'm an engineer and very happy about this delay. every time there is an accident the public flips out and thinks they need to change the entire industry. accidents happen, its life. the bnsf already tried going to one man only operations due in large part to this unnecessary system. cab signal is more than enough to help with some or all of these issues. railroad retirement needs to be funded for as long and by as many employees as possible. i have 19 years to go before i retire and would very much like to receive what i have contributed to over the 36+ year career. the amazing thing is the ble supports and actively lobbies for this to be implemented. they say its over safety. well we'll all be safe sitting in our living rooms unemployed. way to go ble!

 

[neroden]

The utter refusal of the Class Is for 70 years to implement cab signals is what led to this. I would not actually bet on this passing. There are quite a lot of Congressmen who are still angry about the avoidable crashes and deaths. It may be cut back to a shorter extension before passage.