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PTC Deadline Extended - 12/31/20


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#151 CNJRoss

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Posted 15 January 2021 - 05:49 PM

NTSB Advocacy, 1/15/21

 

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NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD ADVOCACY UPD

 

NTSB Closes 3 Key Positive Train Control Safety Recommendations

 

 

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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.

 

 

Watch PTC Video

 



#152 CNJRoss

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Posted 26 January 2021 - 02:24 PM

We Can Do Big Things. Just Look at Positive Train Control

By Member Jennifer Homendy

 

 

After 50 years of investigation, advocacy, and persistence by the NTSB, positive train control (PTC) is now a reality across the country!

This video highlights the NTSB’s more than 50 year effort in investigating PTC-preventable accidents and advocacy for this life-saving technology.

PTC systems use GPS and other technology to prevent certain train collisions and derailments. It could have been lifesaving in the 154 rail accidents that have killed more than 300 people, and injured more than 6,800 passengers, crewmembers, and track workers in major accidents stretching across the nation, from Darien, Connecticut, in 1969, to Chatsworth, California, in 2008, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2015, and DuPont, Washington, in 2017.

But let’s step back and marvel at this real achievement—and the effort it took. Safety improvements are never easy or quick. It took more than 50 years of advocacy by the NTSB and historic action by Congress to make PTC a reality. For many of these years, the NTSB was a lonely voice for safety, pushing for PTC despite opposition from railroads over the price tag and technological hurdles.

I know how tough the battle was because I was there. As staff director for the House subcommittee charged with overseeing rail safety, I played a role in ensuring that any effort to move legislation forward to improve rail safety included the NTSB’s recommendation to implement PTC. When I got to the NTSB, one of my priorities was to ensure that mandate was implemented.

It truly is remarkable in Washington to keep such clear focus on PTC across so many administrations, through so many changes in Congress and at the NTSB.

 

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