Major rail companies on Monday intensified their demands that Congress give them more time to roll out a complex accident prevention technology that can take control of trains to help mitigate human error — or warned that they could face major service shutdowns around the country.
Companies have been working for seven years to develop and install the multi-faceted technology — called positive train control — since receiving a federal mandate in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008.
That legislation contained a deadline of Dec. 31, 2015, to fully implement the computer system that, most prominently, can automatically brake locomotives when traveling over the speed limit or approaching a work zone or misaligned switch.
Following an Amtrak accident that killed eight people in May outside Philadelphia, some officials said such systems could have slowed the train as it sped to 100 miles an hour in a less-than-50-mph zone.
But in a conference call with reporters Monday, industry officials called rolling out the technology a massive undertaking. They warned of the potential for catastrophic, nationwide failures on both freight and passenger railroads if companies can’t legally operate beyond the end of the year.
The freight rail industry needs until the end of 2018 to install the necessary hardware and until the end of 2020 to have it fully tested and operational, said Ed Hamberger, president and CEO for the Association of American Railroads.
“We are committed to getting this job completed,” Mr. Hamberger said.
Industrywide, freight railroads have spent nearly $6 billion of an estimated $10 billion price tag. But Congress in 2008 “did not appreciate the scope or complexity of the technology. It’s not for lack of trying, but we’re not going to make — across the entire network — the 2015 deadline,” Mr. Hamberger said.
Congress required railroads to apply positive train control on lines that carry passengers as well as products classified by the U.S. Department of Transportation as toxic inhalation hazards, which include chemicals like chlorine gas and anhydrous ammonia.
More than 60,000 route miles would fall under these specifications, close to half of the 140,000-mile U.S. network.
Lines around Pittsburgh will soon see installation of certain wireless infrastructure. Railroads keep their hazardous materials route secret due to security concerns, but an Amtrak route carries passengers through Pittsburgh on the Washington, D.C., to Chicago route.
Transportation companies for years have been calling the deadline arbitrary and impossible to meet. While the Senate passed an extension bill in July, the House has not acted on a similar proposal introduced Sept. 30.
CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern Corp., the two major freight carriers through southwestern Pennsylvania, both have said positive train control is several years away. In September, their chief executives detailed their slow progress in separate letters to Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate’s transportation committee.
As of September, CSX had so far spent $1.3 billion, including $800 million to replace about half its existing signaling system. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company plans to spend around $1.9 billion.
“Many of the hurdles we contemplated in 2008 remain as challenges today,” Michael Ward, chairman and CEO of CSX, said. For example, software suppliers still have not developed defect-free versions of components needed to fully install the technology. On the conference call, Mr. Hamberger noted some companies were reporting a 30 to 40 percent error rate in some of the software components.
CSX has begun evaluating imposing embargoes on shippers of certain chemicals, Mr. Ward wrote, as well as “seriously considering” service suspensions for all goods traveling along lines shared with commuter rail networks that would not meet the deadline.
Norfolk Southern President and CEO James Squires wrote that the company had made “Herculean” efforts toward compliance but was considering legal action to invalidate the Dec. 31 deadline. The Virginia company must install equipment in 3,400 locomotives, replace 2,700 signals and map more than 16,000 track miles.
“There will be a transportation crisis in this country,” Michael Melaniphy, president and CEO of the American Public Transportation Association, said on the conference call.
Mr. Melaniphy said an orderly shutdown of a major rail network takes about eight weeks. Without an extension by the end of October, many freight and commuter rail companies will likely begin discussing service shutdowns.
When a reporter suggested that Congress certainly would not allow the network to descend into chaos and that the industry was using scare tactics, Mr. Melaniphy disagreed.
“We’re raising this issue because it is very real,” Mr. Melaniphy said. “Let us never take for granted what Congress may or may not do. … We’re presenting today the facts of what is happening.”
Daniel Moore: dmoore@post-gazette.com, 412-263-2743 and Twitter @PGdanielmoore.
First Published: October 20, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
