U.S. urges railroads to quickly install anti-crash safety system

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao urged the nation's railroads and transit agencies to take all possible measures to meet deadlines to install a safety system called positive train control (PTC) to prevent crashes.

Letters dated Dec. 27, which were made public on Tuesday, said Chao wanted railroads to "greatly accelerate" efforts to meet congressional deadlines.

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In 2008, Congress mandated the implementation of PTC nationwide by the end of 2015, then extended that deadline until the end of 2018 when its installation became more complex than anticipated.
The government can extend the deadline to 2020 to complete some aspects of the system.

Amtrak said last month it was "imperative that the rail industry urgently work together to get PTC activated on the national network as soon as possible - and certainly by the December 2018 federal deadline, if not before."

Chao's letter said the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) leadership plans to work with railroads "to help create an increased level of urgency to underscore the imperative of meeting existing timeline expectations for rolling out this critical rail-safety technology."

The Association of American Railroads said on Tuesday that railroads are making progress on installing and testing PTC technology and freight railroads are on track to meet the deadlines established by Congress.