The Federal Railroad Administration yesterday announced 11 projects in six states and the District of Columbia that will receive $25 million in grant funding for implementation of Positive Train Control under the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday awarded a combined $25 million in grant funding for implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC).
A total of 11 projects in six states and the District of Columbia will receive a portion of the PTC implementation funds under the 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which funds the U.S. Department of Transportation. FRA said it received 30 eligible applications requesting $90.6 million, nearly four times the $25 million Congress provided in the appropriations bill.
Congress in 2008 mandated implementation of PTC, a wireless communication system that can override a conductor to slow or stop a train to prevent an accident, for all U.S. railroads. The original deadline was Dec. 31, 2015, but Congress extended it in order to avoid a potential shutdown of major cargo and passenger service.
Supporters of the system claim it will drastically improve railroad safety, but railways have complained that PTC, which relies on GPS, wireless radio and computers, is complicated and expensive to install. When railroads realized last year they would fail to meet the deadline, many threatened to shut down entirely rather than be subject to steep fines and increased liability.
The deadline extension to 2018 included a provision under which railroads could petition the FRA for an extra two years to implement the intricate system.
Three Class I railways – CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway and Canadian National Railway – along with a handful of passenger railroads, told the FRA in February they will need until 2020 to install PTC across their networks. Kansas City Southern, Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway Co., and Canadian Pacific all said they would meet the 2018 deadline.
FRA has posted on its website a complete list of when railroads predict that they will achieve full PTC implementation.
The administration said it awarded grants to the following entities:
• Metrolink (California) will receive $2.4 million to develop, test and deploy a full-feature service desk management suite of software applications that will allow each railroad to create, track, manage and share PTC system and asset trouble tickets internally within the organization and with interoperable railroad partners;
• Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) District (California) will receive $3 million to install PTC and integrated new grade crossing warning systems on the 2.1-mile passenger rail extension between downtown San Rafael and Larkspur, Calif.;
• Caltrain (California) will receive $2.88 million to conduct two test procedures for the field integration and functional testing of Caltrain’s Interoperable-Incremental Train Control System (I-ITCS) that will allow Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS) equipped tenants to seamlessly operate on Caltrain’s tracks;
• Amtrak (Washington, D.C.) will receive $2.64 million to put in place authentication technology to fully secure the PTC wireless communication and data transmittal between a train’s point of origin and targeted receivers on the Northeast Corridor;
• American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (Washington, D.C.) will receive $2.5 million to create a Crew Initialization Back Office Server System (CI-BOS) hosted service to assist small railroads tasked with implementing PTC, particularly systems that interoperate with Class I railroads;
• Providence and Worcester Railroad Company (P&W) (Massachusetts) will receive $965,832 to acquire and install eight Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (ACSES) PTC onboard units for P&W’s locomotives utilized on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor;
• Twin Cities & Western Railroad Company (Minnesota) will receive $1.1 million to implement and test PTC systems, including a contract with a back office service and interoperability message software provider, initial activation and licensing fees of hosted back office systems, and two PTC equipped locomotives;
• Missouri Department of Transportation (Missouri) will receive $3 million to jointly partner with the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) for an Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS) implementation project on the Missouri side of TRRA’s territory;
• North Carolina Department of Transportation (North Carolina) will receive $771,070 to equip five converted Cab Control Units with Interoperable Electronic Train Management System (I-ETMS) and conduct testing on the Piedmont corridor or within any adjacent rail territory of NCDOT’s rail partners (Norfolk Southern Corporation and Amtrak);
• Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Texas) will receive $3 million to implement Enhanced Automatic Train Control (E-ATC) that will overlay the existing wayside signal system and enhance onboard, wayside, and control office equipment and software to create a functional PTC system in the Austin area;
• And Fort Worth & Western Railroad (Texas) will receive $2.56 million to install PTC on-board equipment and 220 MHz radios on nine locomotives in a phased installation, develop a crew initialization back office server, and train necessary personnel to operate and maintain the PTC system.
“These grants get us a bit closer to implementing Positive Train Control – a long overdue technology that prevents accidents and saves lives,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “We will continue to do everything in our power to help railroads install this technology. We encourage Congress to fully fund the President’s request for significant funds to help more railroads activate PTC.”
“Every dollar we invest in implementing Positive Train Control as quickly as possible is money well spent because ultimately it means fewer accidents and fewer fatalities,” added FRA Administrator Sarah E. Feinberg. “Today’s grants inch us closer to a safer rail network with PTC.”
To support implementation of PTC, FRA has since 2008 provided more than $650 million in grant funds to passenger railroads; issued a nearly $1 billion loan to the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority to implement PTC on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad; built a PTC testbed at the Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo, Colorado; worked directly with the Federal Communications Commission and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to resolve issues related to spectrum use and the approval process for PTC communication towers; and established a dedicated PTC task force.
FRA awards $25m in PTC implementation grants
