FRA chief counsel defends agency’s attention to PTC amid House scrutiny

Federal Railroad Administration Chief Counsel Juan Reyes on Thursday defended his agency’s enforcement of positive train control, an anti-crash technology railroads are expected to implement by Dec. 31, 2018.    Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Chief Counsel Juan Reyes on Thursday defended his agency’s enforcement of positive train control (PTC) implementation, noting during a House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) subcommittee hearing that FRA’s first penalty notices for railroads’ failure to fulfill key elements of their PTC obligations were issued in 2017.
   During the summer of 2017, FRA issued notices of probable violation against seven railroads that didn’t complete hardware installation milestones they had scheduled in their PTC Implementation Plans for completion by the end of 2016, and against seven railroads that didn’t submit a timely Annual PTC Progress Report to FRA by the statutory March 31, 2017 deadline, Reyes stated in written testimony.
   Reyes was pressed by several lawmakers about his agency’s urgency in ensuring full PTC implementation by all railroads before the end-of-2018 federal deadline, in the wake of several recent rail collisions, which many attribute, in part, to a lack of full, countrywide activation of the PTC system.
   The 2017 penalty notices were “a shot across the bow to the railroads to tell them we’re serious, and we want them, and we’re going to push them to get this implemented,” Reyes said.
   Reyes also referenced a December letter from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to all Class I railroads conveying an urgency for nationwide PTC implementation by the current deadline.
   “We met with every single railroad – forty-one railroads in forty-five days – to tell them this is something that needs to happen, now,” Reyes said.
   PTC is an automated system designed to mechanically stop trains before would-be occurrences of certain accidents, including train-to-train collisions, high-speed derailments, train movements through misaligned track switches, and unauthorized entries into work zones.
   Congress had mandated full implementation of PTC by the end of 2015, but extended the deadline to the end of 2018, after many railroads reported significant challenges in ensuring full compliance before the original deadline.
   Reyes’ above statement was a response to questioning by Rep. Sean Maloney, D-N.Y., who cited a fatal 2013 accident and an injurious 2017 accident along different New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Transit Authority railroads.
   “Sir, it’s your job to make sure these railroads meet these deadlines,” Maloney said. “We have provided the financing; we have provided grants. So we are watching this really closely, but we’re counting on you…to hold [railroads’] feet to the fire. Do you understand why we’re a little impatient on this?”
   Among the several other lawmakers who called attention to other train collisions in recent years were Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J., who raised a deadly 2016 New Jersey Transit commuter train crash in Hoboken; Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., who said fatal commuter train accidents in 2015 in Philadelphia and 2017 in Washington state could have been avoided; and Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who cited several accidents in his district since the start of this year.
   T&I Railroads Subcommittee Chairman Jeff Denham, R-Calif., called for greater communication between rail entities and the government during the leadup to the Dec. 31 PTC deadline, and noted that congressional Republicans and Democrats wouldn’t accept any failure of railroads to implement PTC by the current deadline, after the 2015 extension.
   “As you can see, there’s a great deal of frustration about the current implementation,” Denham said in his closing statement. “I would say the thing that’s more concerning is not just where we’re at on implementing, but the question arises on where each different host, as well as each different tenant rail, is on their request.
   “If you have a timeline, we want to see that timeline,” Denham continued. “If you have questions or concerns, or impediments, we want to know what those are. If you’ve not received funding, maybe you should request funding.”