Democratic Senators Introduce Bill to Delay Positive Train Control
Two U.S. senators have introduced a bill seeking to delay the implementation of positive train control, a safety system the nation’s railroads are supposed to implement by the end of the year.
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the measure April 17 that would give railroads until 2018 to install the technology.
Rail carriers have said that the systems are too expensive and complicated for them to meet this year’s deadline.
This is the second bill introduced to delay the PTC deadline.
In March, U.S. Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) introduced a bill that would delay implementation until 2020. His co-sponsors are Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), who is the Commerce Committee's chairman.
Schumer and Blumenthal’s co-sponsors are Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.).
PTC is an automatic communications and signaling system that can help trains, even speeding trains, avoid collisions by slowing or stopping them before impact.
“The National Transportation Safety Board has found dozens of passenger and freight rail accidents over the years could have been prevented through the use of PTC, including the 2013 Spuyten Duyvil crash in the Bronx [New York City] in which four lives were lost and a 2008 crash in southern California that killed 25 commuters,” Schumer and Blumenthal said in a statement.
Their bill would also “ensure PTC be installed on routes carrying dangerous crude oil or ethanol, which will help prevent future explosive accidents,” they said.
“It’s of the utmost importance that all railroads quickly install this life-saving technology,” Schumer said.
Blumenthal said: “Safety has been derailed and delayed—and that’s no way to run a railroad.”
