Few Railroads On Track To Meet End-Of-Year Safety Deadline

NPR reports:

Railroads warn they may have to shut down unless Congress extends an end-of-the-year deadline to install new safety equipment called Positive Train Control.

PTC is a complex system that monitors a train's location and speed, then automatically slows down or stops a locomotive if the engineer doesn't respond to a danger warning.

Congress required passenger and freight railroads to install PTC in 2008, after a Metrolink passenger train collided with a freight train in Los Angeles, killing 25 people. It also would have slowed down the fast-moving Amtrak train that derailed earlier this year in Philadelphia, killing eight.

The 2008 Rail Safety Improvement Act set a deadline of Dec. 31, 2015, for railroads to implement PTC systems — or face big fines. Metrolink is among the few railroads expected to meet the deadline, according to a Government Accountability Office report. Other passenger railroads on track to finish by the end of the year include Caltrain, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, known as SEPTA, and TriMet in Oregon.

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