Calls to modify train control requirement

Calls to modify train control requirement    Rail executives and some Congressmen Thursday called for modifying federal requirements that railroads install positive train control (PTC) systems to slow or stop trains before potential accidents caused by human error can occur.
   The requests came a hearing convened by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials subcommittee.
   “Positive train control is an example of regulatory overreach that I would like to focus on here today,” said subcommittee chairman Rep. Bill Shuster R-Pa.
   He said the Federal Railway Administration’s PTC rule “has raised great concern and strong objections, specifically because the FRA regulation appears to have gone beyond the scope of the Rail Safety Improvement Act.” The law was passed after a 2008 train accident in Chatsworth, Calif., that killed 25 and injured 135.

Shuster

   Testifying for the Association of American Railroads, Norfolk Southern Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Mark Manion said the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was the most costly federal mandate in U.S. railroad history with a $13.2 billion price tag.
   He said AAR estimates that PTC systems would have to be deployed on 73,000 miles of U.S. freight lines. The FRA estimates railroads will have to spend $5 billion to install PTC, while AAR placed the estimate at $5.8 billion for freight railroads and $2.4 billion for passenger railroads. The $13.2 billion figure includes the net present value of the costs to both install and maintain the systems over 20 years.
   AAR says the costs of PTC “far outweigh benefits.”
   “Because railroads do not have unlimited funds to devote to infrastructure projects, expenditures on PTC necessarily mean reduced expenditures on other projects that would increase capacity, promote economic recovery, improve service, provide environmental benefits and, importantly, enhance safety in more effective ways,” Manion said.
   Among the changes AAR would like to see is to have the requirement that PRC be installed on rail lines that carried toxic inhalation (TIH) materials in 2008 be changed so that the requirement only applies to the lines where TIH freight is carried in 2015.
   It noted TIH traffic patterns are changing because of Department of Transportation regulations, rail companies going out of business, and companies replacing TIH materials with safer chemicals. It also suggested an exemption be made for tracks where only small amounts of TIH materials are carried.
   The law also requires PTC systems to be installed on rail lines where passenger trains run. The Chatsworth accident involved a collision between a Union Pacific freight train and a commuter train being driven by an engineer who routinely sent text messages on a cell phone as he drove trains.
   If unchanged, AAR said the use of 2008 as the base year on which railroads must install PTC, would result in $500 million being spent in the next few years on more than 10,000 miles of rail lines on which neither passengers or TIH materials will be moving in 2015.
   Following the issuance of FRA’s final rule for implementing PTC, AAR filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Washington D.C. Circuit, seeking to change certain aspects of the rule. Earlier this month, FRA agreed to undertake a review of the rules, and the suit was put on hold.
   Joseph Giulietti, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, testified on behalf of the American Public Transportation Association. He asked Congress to extend the PTC implementation deadline to Dec. 31, 2018 and provide federal funding equal to the 80 percent of the $2 billion it estimates commuter railroads will spend on PTC systems. He also asked Congress to order the he FCC set aside enough radio frequency at no cost so that railroads can set up such systems. ' Chris Dupin