WASHINGTON — In a new report, the National Transportation Safety Board calls on the Federal Railroad Administration to incorporate new technologies into existing positive train control systems and address issues with PTC in its current form.
The 51-page report, available here, says safety issues remain in existing PTC systems in the form of:
— Insufficient information about train location during restricted-speed operations;
— Now-obsolete exceptions to PTC use in terminal environments;
— Overreliance on administrative controls to prevent unsafe use of PTC’s switching mode on main lines;
— And unsafe train incursions into established working limits.
“Implementation of positive train control across our nation’s rail system is undoubtedly a safety win — one the NTSB supported for over five decades,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement accompanying release of the report.“And yet, we haven’t achieved zero deaths on our railroads, which means there’s more we can and must do to strengthen safety.”
The NTSB also called on the FRA to publish results of current research into new PTC technology and to develop a plan for implementation of new technologies; to require railroads adopt systems that automatically return PTC to the active mode following switching operations, and to eliminate the risk of miscommunication between dispatchers and track workers regarding PTC protection; and to work with railroads to remove terminal exceptions for PTC through the use of new technology.
The public docket for material underlying the report, which includes interviews with a number of PTC specialists at railroads, equipment manufactures, and the FRA, is available here.
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