Positive-train-control (PTC) requirements still undecided as end-of-year deadline looms

PTC technology is designed to provide location information about trains and prevent train collisions. Congress established the current Dec. 31, 2015, PTC deadline in legislation was passed just one month after the tragic September 2008 collision of a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train in the Chatsworth district of Los Angeles.

While there is uncertainty surrounding the status of the PTC deadline, there is no doubt that most rail companies will not have the technology implemented by the end of the year. According to the GAO report, 20 of the 29 rail companies interviewed will not have PTC technology in their systems until 1 to 5 years after the deadline, and three other railroads did not have an estimated completion date.

Meanwhile, even those rail companies that meet the deadline may not be able to use PTC effectively, because they will have trains on tracks that do not have PTC or because trains without PTC would be traveling on their tracks.

According to the GAO report, some of the challenges that rail companies have faced in trying to implement PTC include a shortage of PTC equipment and vendors, as well as interoperability issues between PTC solutions.

Given these circumstances, the GAO recommends that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) “develop a plan that outlines how the agency will hold railroads accountable for making continued progress toward the full implementation of PTC by, among other things, collecting any additional information needed to track progress of individual railroads. DOT agreed with the recommendation.”