Trains Magazine 'Observation Tower' blog, 7/13/18:
Is Amtrak missing the big picture on PTC and safety?
‘Safety is always the first priority.’ This phrase, or some variant of it, is drilled into the psyche of every railroader, and for good reason. Every other goal, cause and criterion should always take a back seat to safety. But there is such a thing as losing sight of the proverbial forest for focusing too much on individual trees when it comes to safety, and it is possible to overreact to safety lapses. I fear that Amtrak is falling into both of these traps based on its approach to positive train control and related matters in light of the fatal accidents in December in DuPont, Wash. and in February in Cayce, S.C.
Traveling on a train that is protected by PTC is, of course, preferable to traveling on one that is not PTC protected. But even on a non-PTC-equipped train, a passenger is, statistically, many orders of magnitude safer than he or she would be in a car. . . .
SNIP
Congress and federal regulators consider it safe for passenger trains to operate without PTC on line segments where there is little traffic and/or other safety technology, such as the Santa Fe’s cab signaling with Automatic Train Stop, is in place. Yet the way Amtrak officials have discussed their approach to these portions of the system leads one to believe that they are averse to running trains without PTC, even where it is not required and not really necessary.
In one case — the PTC-exempt segment of the Southwest Chief route between Dodge City, Kan. and Albuquerque, where Amtrak is virtually the only user — the railroad is proposing permanently replacing the train with an overnight motorcoach on that segment, . . .
More here.