Report by Paula Antolini
October 13, 2015 8:43AM EDT
Railroad Information That May Affect Doing Business in Connecticut and Beyond
On Oct 12, 2015, the Bethel Chamber of Commerce sent out this message:
Disruptions would most likely negatively impact the U.S. economy and affect everyone, including farmers, manufacturers, consumers, water treatment facilities, rail passengers, energy companies, government agencies and beyond.Train systems cannot be shut down or restarted overnight so freight railroads, passenger rail providers and shippers are being forced to make decisions now to prepare for the severe disruptions in rail service that will occur if Congress does not act soon on a PTC extension.
Please vote to extend the deadline for implementation of positive train control (PTC). Railroads have invested nearly $6 billion to implement PTC by adding the technology to locomotives, tracks and cars and hiring thousands of PTC installers. However, it is impossible for them to meet the December 31 deadline.
If Congress does not act, railroads may be forced to stop service for freight and passengers across huge sections of the rail network. That would affect all of us and have huge impacts on farmers, manufacturers, water treatment plants, energy companies, rail passengers and the entire economy.
Train systems cannot be shut down or restarted overnight so freight railroads, passenger rail providers and shippers are being forced to make decisions and notify customers now.
The Senate included a reasonable and realistic PTC extension in the DRIVE Act. The House is set to consider H.R. 3651, the Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015. Both chambers and the White House need to take action to extend the PTC deadline now to avoid dramatic consequences across the country.
Positive train control (PTC) is a system of functional requirements for monitoring and controlling train movements as an attempt to provide increased safety.
The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) describes Positive Train Control as having these primary characteristics:
- Train separation or collision avoidance
- Line speed enforcement
- Temporary speed restrictions
- Rail worker wayside safety
The main concept in PTC (as defined for North American Class I freight railroads) is that the train receives information about its location and where it is allowed to safely travel, also known as movement authorities. Equipment on board the train then enforces this, preventing unsafe movement. PTC systems may work in either dark territory or signaled territory, and may use GPS navigation to track train movements. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has listed among its goals, “To deploy the Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) as a nationwide, uniform, and continuous positioning system, suitable for train control.”
Various other benefits are sometimes associated with PTC such as increased fuel efficiency or locomotive diagnostics; these are benefits that can be achieved by having a wireless data system to transmit the information, whether it be for PTC or other applications.
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