Category: Positive Train Control

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Keep train safety system on deadline

June 22, 2015 When a passenger boards a Metro-North train, there is every expectation to arrive at the destination safely. Yet Congress is considering easing a year-end deadline for railroads to install a technology — called Positive Train Control — that will prevent accidents like those d [...]

Tags Amtrak, Metro-North, PTC

FRA recommends actions to prevent speeding

June 10, 2015 WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today issued a safety advisory recommending actions that passenger railroads take to prevent trains from speeding. The advisory is the latest in a series of steps FRA has taken to keep passenger railroads safe for the tr [...]

Tags Anthony Foxx, ATC, Automatic Train Control, FRA, PTC, Sarah Feinberg

BLET/SMART TD statement on Positive Train Control, crew size following fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia

May 19, 2015 (The following is a joint statement by Dennis R. Pierce, National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and John Previsich, President, SMART Transportation Division, regarding questions that have arisen since the fatal Amtrak derailment in Philade [...]

Tags BLET, John Previsich, Pierce, positive train control, SMART TD, two-person crews

PTC coming to Metro North and LIRR

May 8, 2015 HARTFORD, Conn. – Federal transportation officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency have agreed on a nearly $1 billion federal loan to install technology that could slow trains when necessary on Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Railroad. Sen. Richard Blume [...]

Tags FRA, LIRR, MTA, positive train control, PTC

Metra to spend $80 million to launch PTC system

April 23, 2015 Metra’s board on Wednesday approved two large contracts, including one for $80 million to help implement a high-tech safety system that federal officials said would have prevented two Chicago derailments that killed two people and injured scores of passengers. The other [...]

Tags Metra, positive train control, PTC

Senators seek to extend PTC deadline to 2020's end

March 5, 2015 U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) yesterday introduced a bill (S. 650) that proposes to extend the federally mandated deadline for positive train control (PTC) implementation by five years from 2015’s en [...]

Tags positive train control, PTC, Science and Transportation, Senate Committee on Commerce

Foxx says PTC deadline will not be extended

February 12, 2015 A Dec. 31 deadline for railroads to equip all trains with crash-avoidance technology known as “positive train controls” won’t be extended, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Feb. 11. Testifying before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Commi [...]

Tags Anthony Foxx, positive train control, PTC

NTSB increases pressure for automatic train braking

January 14, 2015 The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday issued its annual tally of Most Wanted Transportation Safety Improvements, adding to the list for the first time the issue of the safety of railroad tank cars carrying crude oil and ethanol. The safety board also urged the r [...]

Tags automatic train braking, National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, positive train control, PTC

BNSF crew proposal was defeated by 5-1 margin

October 1, 2014 Of 3,679 ballots returned, 3,056 were in opposition to the crew consist agreement. Nearly the same number of ballots cast were in opposition to a wage and rule settlement offered by the carrier. Under the proposal, engineers would have received a pay boost, and conductors wou [...]

Tags BNSF Railway, GO-001, one-person crew, two-person crews

SMART TD supports Senate rail crew provision

September 11, 2014 U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced railroad safety legislation Sept. 10 that continues dialogue on the nation’s rail safety laws. S. 2784, the Rail Safe [...]

Tags Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2014, S. 2784, Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation