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Positive train control extension? Unlikely

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Posted by BaltACD on Sunday, August 23, 2015 11:55 AM

Euclid
Reality?  What difference does it make whether the deadline is 2015 or 2018?  The issues of the two deadlines are the same.

2018 might be achieved by a majority of companies.

2015 won't.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by oltmannd on Sunday, August 23, 2015 12:12 PM

Euclid

Who has suggested that railroads will stop running trains if they cannot comply with the deadline?  What would be the point?????????????????

 

They would merely be complying with the law.  The requires PTC.  They don't have it.  They can't legally operate.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by oltmannd on Sunday, August 23, 2015 12:14 PM

Euclid
 
dehusman

If after 12/31/2015 it is illegal to operate certain trains incertain territories without PTC, the railroad is under no obligation to operate those trains.  It will be hard to justify requiring the railroads to violate the law and then fining them because they violated the law. 

 
 
 
As I understand it, passing the deadline without complying with the mandate to install PTC is illegal.
 
Has it been officially determined and stated that operating trains without PTC after not complying with the deadline is also illegal?
 

Yes.  And there are fines for non-compliance.  The only way to stay compliant would be to not operate non-compliant trains.  The RRs could operate lines that don't require PTC.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by oltmannd on Sunday, August 23, 2015 12:25 PM

Operating a non-compliant train would be akin to operating locomotives with know safety defects, or operating crude oil trains with know safety defects.  It opens you up to a whole world of hurt should something go wrong.

The RRs wouldn't be walking away from their common carrier obligations any more than what happens during a strike or during periods of congestion.

-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, August 23, 2015 12:39 PM

oltmannd

The only way to stay compliant would be to not operate non-compliant trains.  

 
 
It appears that railroads cannot avoid being non-compliant merely by ceasing the operation of non-compliant trains after the deadline.  Even if they shut down operations of non-complying trains, they are still breaking the law by failure to install PTC.  
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Posted by schlimm on Sunday, August 23, 2015 1:26 PM

What is so hard to understand about the regulation (that was posted) that it requires endlessly going round and round?

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Posted by wanswheel on Sunday, August 23, 2015 2:13 PM
Obama controls enforcement. He can tell FRA to lower all fines to a dollar, or to don’t even enforce that law. All it takes is an executive order based on some law on the books. He’s not going to let a crisis over PTC happen because he can prevent it if Congress fails to.
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Posted by tommyboy on Monday, August 24, 2015 3:02 PM

New York's MTA announced a couple of weeks ago that Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road are currently scheduled to begin testing PTC equipment on their trains by the end of 2016. This was carried in a news report in USA Today that the FRA had surveyed commuter agencies and found most were not planning on doing serious testing until sometime in 2016.

From the article-

MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said PTC is expected “to be fully installed and operational on both railroads by 2018,” noting that the federal government recently approved a nearly $1 billion loan “to help us install on-board components for 1,455 rail cars as well as transponders along 588 route miles of track as quickly as possible.’’

 

It sounds like there is a lot going on behind-the-scenes.

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Posted by BaltACD on Friday, September 11, 2015 8:57 PM

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by ALEXANDER WOOD on Saturday, September 12, 2015 11:05 AM

Buslist
"Metrolink wasn't talking about PTC220 spectrum ... their rep was talking about spectrum I helped Metrolink find from a private source ... and that deal still is not done, contrary to Dave's claim. Fortunately, PTC220 came to the rescue in the mean time. The spectrum LIRR and MNR were able to get in certain areas is simply not available on other parts of MNR. And until all the recent attention of Philly, FCC was unwilling to help with PTC. Now they've gotten very helpful all of a sudden and the NEC spectrum problem is on it's way to being solved. We ... are planning out the use of PTC220 spectrum, and to date, it has been for nothing other than PTC. That may change in the future, but not so far."

What has Amtrak been using for the last 15 years from NHV to BOS and parts of the NYP-WAS routes? I've seen those PTC antennas for 15 years, but I have no clue what frequency they are running on...

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Posted by Paul of Covington on Saturday, September 12, 2015 4:12 PM

BaltACD

    "... with its chairman, Christopher Hart, saying, "You don't pay extra for your seat belt..."

    Sez who?

_____________ 

  "A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner

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Posted by tommyboy on Sunday, September 13, 2015 8:57 AM

CSX is threatening to suspend their freight operations over commuter lines they operate on -- Metro-North in New York, MBTA in Massachusetts among them -- if Congress does not extend the deadline for implementing PTC. Most of the commuter lines over which CSX has track rights (Septa is an exception) are not scheduled to have PTC operational by the Dec. 31, 2015 deadline. In addition, CSX may ban Amtrak trains from CSX lines that are not compliant by the deadline.

Any suspension of service over Metro-North would create an immediate crisis for New York City since a significant portion of the city's solid waste from Brooklyn and Queens is carried to landfills by CSX via the Oak Point yard in the Bronx and MNR's Hudson Line.

From an article in a local newspaper, The Journal News:

“CSX is seriously considering suspending freight operations’’ on commuter rail lines that don’t have PTC operational by Jan. 1, CSX Chairman and CEO Michael Ward wrote...Without “a reasonable extension,’’ Ward said, “any accident involving Amtrak, commuter or TIH (toxic inhalation hazards) products would expose CSX to huge potential liability for operating in violation of federal law.’’ http://www.lohud.com/story/news/transit/2015/09/11/csx-metro-north/72085824/

Congress will be considering an extension at an October 29th hearing. 

 

 Edited to add: I think that, contrary to the thread title, an extension to the PTC deadline is not only likely, I think it's almost certain to happen.

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