Railroad Passengers Urgently Seek Nationwide Deployment of Life-Saving Positive Train Control

Release #08-19—September 23, 2008

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The National Association of Railroad Passengers today called upon Congress and the Bush Administration, regulators, and the railroad industry to move ahead as quickly as possible with implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC), a train collision-avoidance system that could have prevented the loss of 25 lives in the Metrolink-Union Pacific collision in Chatsworth, CA on September 12.

“The technology involving global-positioning satellites and other components to stop trains from running red signals is already in limited use on BNSF Railway.  Due to common use of a single vendor by the four major private railroads and Metra, the big Chicago area commuter railroad, a de facto national standard for PTC already exists,” said NARP Executive Director Ross B. Capon.

PTC also automatically slows trains when they run too fast by a “yellow” signal, and offers substantial additional benefits.  In general, the private benefits include improved asset utilization, faster running times and greater reliability, along with increased revenues and/or traffic that result.  The “public-and-private” benefits include—besides safer operations—improvements related to security, capacity, fuel consumption and the environment (reduced emissions per freight ton-mile or passenger-mile).

BNSF Railway tested the electronic system on the 135-mile Beardstown-Centralia, Illinois, line starting in October 2004.  In January 2007, federal regulators approved BNSF use of the system over a wider part of the system, with Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph R. Boardman calling it “the beginning of a new era of rail safety.”

Capon noted, “While major train accidents are thankfully few and far between, each one is followed by expressions of surprise from reporters and even some public officials that trains do not already enjoy the kind of safety protection that PTC offers.  We are now at the stage where the right commitment of money both by the federal government and the private railroads can fix this gaping hole in the U.S. transportation’s safety net.”

Earlier technologies do offer this protection along the Boston-Washington line, part of the Chicago-Detroit line and on some commuter railroads, but the advanced PTC technology is considered the only feasible way to equip the nationwide freight and passenger train network.  The system would be overlaid on a patchwork of various legacy signaling systems.  While one vendor has created the specifications, there is plenty of room for competition among different companies to build the various components that make up a PTC system.

“The Federal Railroad Administration has estimated that nationwide deployment of PTC would cost $2.3 billion,” said Capon.  “This cost—when divided among the public and private sectors—could easily be justified for our vast railroad network that, in 2007, carried 26 million Amtrak passengers, 461 million commuter train passengers, and 40 percent of all freight ton-miles.  The growing importance of getting this done parallels the growth in rail traffic driven by high energy costs and rail’s superior energy efficiency,” said Capon.

He added, “The Chatsworth tragedy occurred on a publicly-owned railroad, highlighting the need to install PTC on both publicly and privately-owned tracks.  We must avoid a nightmare scenario where railroads and government, especially the federal government, spend years endlessly haggling over how much different parties will pay.  The time to act is now.”

Two pending bills in the Congress would begin to address the need for PTC by requiring Class I railroads (the seven largest privately-owned railroads) to implement PTC in the coming years.  The Rail Collision Prevention Act, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced last week, would require PTC on our nation’s railroads by the end of 2014.  The Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007, H.R. 2095—which has passed both chambers of Congress, cleared a conference committee, and may see final action before adjournment this week—would require PTC by the end of 2018.  “The next step is implementing a funding mechanism,” said Capon.  [The bill the House passed September 24 sets a deadline of December 31, 2015 for installing PTC “on all main-line track where intercity passenger railroads and commuter railroads operate and where toxic-by-inhalation hazardous materials are transported.”  Quote is from a committee summary of the bill.]

“NARP agrees with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s assessment on September 13 that trains are by far the safest mode of ground transportation, but the public deserves a first-class passenger and freight railroad system that takes advantage of the latest operational and safety technologies,” said Capon.

About NARP

NARP is the largest citizen-based organization advocating for train and rail transit passengers. We have worked since 1967 to expand the quality and quantity of passenger train service in the U.S. Our mission is to work towards a modern, customer-focused national passenger train network that provides a travel choice Americans want. Our work is supported by over 24,000 individual members.