AAR heralds Class I railroad positive train control implementation

The Association of American Railroads (AAR) recently reported that Class I railroads have made significant strides in its efforts to implement positive train control (PTC) on 83.2% of the required Class I PTC miles in the United States.

The objective of PTC systems is to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, and incursions into roadway work limits. PTC sends and receives a continuous stream of data transmitted by wireless signals about the location, speed, and direction of trains, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). PTC systems, added the FRA, utilize advanced technologies including digital radio links, global positioning systems and wayside computer control systems that aid dispatchers and train crews in safely managing train movements. A mandate for PTC systems was included in House and Senate legislation-The Rail Safety and Improvement Act of 2008. The legislation was passed after a September 12, 2008 collision between a freight train and a commuter train in Los Angeles.

Railroads were required by law to have PTC installed by December 31, 2018, which was past the original deadline of December 31, 2015, which the AAR said was arbitrary and unworkable and riddled with technical and legal complexities, as well as railroads and freight rail shippers stressing there would be serious consequences for the nation if the deadline was​​ not extended. The final deadline for full implementation for PTC is December 31, 2020. 

With its 83.2% PTC implementation, AAR said that Class I railroads met the statutory requirements and are on pace to meet the final December 31, 2020 deadline. And it added that over the next two years, Class I railroads will be conducting testing designed to make sure PTC systems are fully interoperable and work seamlessly across operations as railroads often run across each others tracks.

“Each day, the freight railroads expand PTC operations, further reducing the risk of accidents on the nation’s rail network,” said AAR President and CEO Ian Jefferies in a statement. “By the end of 2018, the Class I railroads had installed and were operating PTC on the vast majority of their required networks, met all other statutory PTC requirements and remained on track to fully implement this critical safety technology by the final 2020 deadline. The railroads’ commitment to safety is unwavering, and this industry is proud of its accomplishments in this immense undertaking.”

AAR officials said that as of December 31, 2018, Class I railroads have spent $10.5 billion on PTC development, installation, and implementation, with PTC technology in operation across 44,695 miles of the 53,732 miles of PTC require track. And it also noted that all seven Class I railroads had 100% of the necessary wayside, back office, and locomotive hardware installed, and had all spectrum in place, and all necessary employee training completed.

In past years, the pace of PTC implementation has been largely viewed as “uneven” from freight railroad stakeholders. PTC has been commonly referred to as the “unfunded mandate” in railroad circles. A major concern of freight railroads has been that PTC rules finalized in January 2010 required PTC on sections of tracking where the cost is not justified, according to a March 2011 Wall Street Journal report.

A noted rail observed said in a previous interview that it is unlikely PTC will have an impact on railroad service in the intermediate term.

“In the long term, the goal, which is something Norfolk Southern previously said, is to move this from the unfunded mandate to the backbone of the new digital railroad,” explained Tony Hatch, principal of New York-based ABH Consulting. “At some point, this is going to help by being a better communications device or a real-time communications device. It is something that will help railroads with predictive maintenance, which will help service, as it will reduce failures and will help with visibility and that also improves service. There are all sorts of customer-facing and non customer-facing things where this can be a real help.”