NTSB Advocacy, 1/15/21
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD ADVOCACY UPD
NTSB Closes 3 Key Positive Train Control Safety Recommendations
What to Know...
Yesterday, we closed three key positive train control (PTC) safety recommendations after the nation’s railroads met the Dec. 31, 2020, deadline for compliance. Chairman Robert Sumwalt announced the recommendation closures at a live discussion on PTC Implementation that included three former NTSB chairmen. In the discussion, moderated by Board Member Jennifer Homendy, the Chairman's predecessors reflected on the 50-year-long march to PTC implementation. The discussion also featured a panel of investigators and staff who discussed the professional and personal challenges of responding to some of the 154 PTC-preventable accidents the agency has investigated. During the event, we presented a video highlighting the NTSB’s more than 50-year effort in investigating PTC-preventable accidents and advocacy for this life-saving technology.
Advocacy take away...
The recommendations closed were issued to Metra, Canadian National Railway Corp. and CSX Transportation are related to installing PTC, the safety technology that prevents equipped trains from colliding, missing signals or speeding. The recommendations will be classified “closed – acceptable action.” The NTSB has called for PTC for more than 50 years. PTC implementation is on the NTSB’s 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements. PTC compliance will formally remain on the current Most Wanted List until March, when the NTSB will decide on a new list of transportation improvements. The board could vote to remove PTC from the list then.