151 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

New Haven (CT) Register, 8/12:
 

 

Blumenthal: Hold railroads accountable on delay in installing safety technology

 

HARTFORD >> U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Wednesday he is pushing for railroads, including Metro-North, to be held accountable with “stiff and serious” consequences, including fines, for failure to prove good faith efforts to implement life-saving Positive Train Control by Dec. 31. .

 

“This technology is literally life-saving,” he said. “It prevents accidents, collisions and derailments. ... It’s enormously important in saving lives and dollars.”

 

Blumenthal said the technology is like a GPS for trains, slowing them if they are going too fast and stopping them if they are about to hit another train or a person on the tracks. He said the system would have saved the life of Robert Luden, 52, of East Haven, a Metro-North foreman who died in May 2013 when he was struck while working on tracks in West Haven.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading, 8/13:

 

Sen. Blumenthal urges Metro-North to set firm deadline for PTC implementation

 

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) yesterday demanded MTA Metro-North Railroad to provide a deadline for implementation of positive train control (PTC).In a letter to Metro-North's President Joseph Giulietti, Blumenthal called the delays in installing the technology "deeply disturbing," and noted that "no firm deadline" exists for implementing PTC at Metro-North.

 

"Riders and consumers deserve to know a date certain for PTC implementation," he wrote. "The public needs full assurance of a deadline for Metro-North fulfilling its obligation to protect the lives of passengers and workers on their behalf."

 

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[KevinKorell]

Progressive Railroading, 9/4/15:

 

Metra awards contract to Parsons for PTC implementation

 

Metra selected Parsons to install positive train control (PTC) on the Chicago railroad’s commuter-rail lines.

The contract, which marks Metra’s biggest PTC expenditure to date, calls for Parsons to install an electronic train management system that will be interoperable with 12 railroads, Parsons officials said in a press release.

This is the story.

[CNJRoss]

Progressive Railroading, 9/9:

 

AAR to Congress: Clarity needed ASAP on PTC

With Congress back in session after the August recess, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) issued a memo yesterday to remind lawmakers that the positive train control (PTC) mandate places freight railroads in a difficult position due to the lack of an extension and the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) intent to issue fines for missing the Dec. 31 deadline.

 

The mandated deadline is "arbitrary, unworkable and unrealistic," and December 2018 would be a more realistic timeframe for full PTC implementation, plus an additional two years for nationwide testing, AAR officials said in the memo.

 

The deadline long has been viewed by the rail industry and PTC experts as "an impossible timeframe" since freight railroads need to equip about 60,000 miles of right of way throughout the country with the technology, they said.

 

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[CNJRoss]

Bloomberg Business, 9/8:

 

Amtrak at Risk of Disruption in Railroad Showdown With Congress

 

Amtrak passenger service that runs on tracks owned by freight rail companies may be curtailed unless Congress extends a Dec. 31 deadline to implement a safety system that was mandated seven years ago.

 

SNIP

 

Only about a third of Amtrak’s 31.6 million passengers in fiscal 2013 traveled on its own tracks, so the majority may be affected if the freight railroads curtail or stop services. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington will be ready by the deadline, said spokesman Marc Magliari. Positive train control is already on its line from Porter, Indiana, to Kalamazoo, Michigan.

 

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Edited by CNJRoss, 11 September 2015 - 07:58 AM.
Correct publication date.

[CNJRoss]

UP Customer News:

 

Note items I highlighted!

 

 

Positive Train Control Update

Posted Date: September 9, 2015

To Our Customers:
 

In 2008, Congress passed a law requiring railroads to install Positive Train Control (PTC) on lines that carry passengers or toxic by inhalation gas (TIH). The deadline for complete installation is December 31, 2015. Union Pacific is implementing PTC, and since the mandate in 2008, we have worked tirelessly to design, install and test the system. However, despite our best efforts, we will not meet the installation deadline. 
 

Union Pacific is committed to implementing PTC as safely and as rapidly as possible. We have dedicated tremendous resources to developing and installing this complex technology. We have about 1,000 people working on PTC, and we have invested $1.8 billion through mid-2015 and plan to invest another $200 million before the end of this year. 
 

PTC is not an off-the-shelf technology. After the mandate passed in 2008, we (and other railroads) had to first design and perform preliminary tests on the system. Rigorous testing remains to be done to ensure the PTC components will operate reliably and will not disrupt rail service by stopping trains unnecessarily. As you would expect with any new and complex technology, we experienced a variety of regulatory and supplier delays. These issues will prevent us from complying with the December 31, 2015, deadline established by Congress. In fact, all freight railroads and nearly every passenger railroad will not meet the deadline.
 

We have communicated frequently with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), members of Congress and other government officials about the need for an extension of the 2015 deadline. We appreciate that many of you have also communicated with elected officials on this important issue and have conveyed the need for a realistic deadline. While we are still hopeful that Congress will pass, and the President will sign, a bill that extends the PTC implementation deadline, we also recognize that our customers need to prepare in case a decision to extend the deadline is not made soon. 

 

We have been considering how Union Pacific can best meet the goals of safety, compliance with applicable regulations, and our responsibilities to our customers. We have come to the reluctant conclusion that, without a timely extension, Union Pacific must embargo TIH shipments. We anticipate issuing an embargo notice before Thanksgiving. We will provide advance notice of when Union Pacific will actually issue its embargo if there is no extension. In addition, all passenger operations on Union Pacific lines will be discontinued by year’s end. While the embargo will be limited to TIH at this time, we may need to consider expanding the scope if the FRA imposes fines on freight trains without TIH, which it is authorized to do. 
 

Union Pacific will continue to work actively with Congress to obtain an extension. We encourage you to reach out to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators urging them to support a PTC deadline extension. Additionally, you can ask your trade associations and industry groups to contact Congress as well. 

 

As always, thank you for your business and support of Union Pacific.

[CNJRoss]

Trains magazine, "Blog by Fred Frailey," 9/9:

 

BNSF: We will shut down

 

In a candid letter to a U.S. senator, BNSF Railway’s chief executive, Carl Ice, said September 9 that BNSF would in effect shut down most of its network rather than violate a federal law mandating that positive train control be operational by December 31. CSX Transportation has said it, too, questions whether it should violate federal laws, and other Class I carriers are likely to follow suit. This set up the real possibility of a national transportation crisis at the beginning of 2016. The public may be unaware of how closely the U.S. economy is tied to railroads, but the reality is that without railroads, this country will quickly cease to function normally. Imagine, for instance, no electricity to heat homes.

 

In his letter to Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota), chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Ice says that the railroad has already spent $1.5 billion to deploy PTC and will likely spend another $500 million. Ultimately, this new technology will be deployed on half of BNSF’s network, the portion that handles 80 percent of its traffic. 

 

But portions of both transcontinental routes will not be operational by the December 31 deadline set by Congress in 2008. Nor will commuter zones in Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis.  .  .  . 

 

SNIP 

 

My wife Cathie, who spent her corporate career dealing with political life in Washington, calls this “classic DC gamesmanship.” She says the fact that Carl Ice has now publicly laid out a disastrous outcome that neither voters nor shippers can countenance means that the problem will be resolved either by a suspension of the law or an amendment to it pushing back the deadline. Or maybe not. Who knows?

 

Our political system is full of hypocrites who pass laws yet will not deal with the consequences of those laws. This situation cries for clarity and level-headedness, and we’re seeing little of it in Washington. You wonder why Republicans are flocking to The Donald. This is why. Everyone is hiding from reality—everyone, that is, except a few brave souls such as Carl Ice, who is unafraid to say the ball is in Washington’s court and that we as citizens may end up burning our furniture in the fireplace to stay warm.—Fred W. Frailey

 

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[CNJRoss]

Reuters, 9/9:

 

U.S. railroads warn of system disruptions over safety deadline

 

Major U.S. and Canadian railroads stepped up pressure on Congress to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for new safety technology on Wednesday, warning that failure to act would lead to crippling disruptions across the national freight and passenger rail system.

 

In separate Sept. 9-dated letters sent to the Senate Commerce Committee, BNSF Railway Co, Norfolk Southern Corp and Canadian Pacific Railway Co [CPCPR.UL] said service disruptions could affect shippers across a number of industries as well as passenger and commuter rail service to major cities from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

 

At issue is a congressionally mandated deadline for railroads to implement positive train control, or PTC, an advanced safety technology that can prevent major accidents.

 

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[CNJRoss]

The Journal, White Plains, NY 9/11:

 

CSX might cease operations on Metro-North lines in January

 

CSX and other freight railroads are highlighting what may happen if Congress fails to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for installing positive train controls.

 

 

WASHINGTON — New York City would have to find other options for hauling municipal waste to landfills if CSX follows through on a threat to stop operating on Metro-North tracks in January.

 

That’s among the consequences CSX and other freight lines say will result if Congress fails to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for installing new accident avoidance technology knows as “positive train controls.”

 

Congress is expected to address the deadline by Oct. 29, when the latest short-term extension of the Highway Trust Fund expires.

 

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[CNJRoss]

WBBM (CBS) Chicago, 9/11:

 

Railroads Threaten Shutdown Without Extension Of Safety System Deadline

 

CHICAGO (CBS) — The nation’s major freight railroads are threatening partial or total shutdowns Jan. 1, unless Congress extends the deadline for installing new signaling systems and software — and Metra and Amtrak are caught in the middle.

 

Metra said Thursday that it, too, would be forced to halt operations when 2016 dawns, in a letter to U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), the chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

 

SNIP

 

“In the absence of an extension, there is a strong possibility that Metra will not be able to operate our trains beginning Jan. 1, 2016,” Orseno wrote. “Additionally, the two railroads with which we have purchase of service agreements — UP and BNSF — have stated that they do not plan to operate passenger rail until PTC is fully implemented and operational.”

 

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