Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="CSSHEGEWISCH"] While the PTC mandate may not have been well thought out as far as implementation time is concerned, it was in response to a perceived popular demand for tighter safety requirements.  I get the impression that there are many feel that regulation pertaining to safety is restrictive and unnecessary.  Some believe that the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety Act are restrictions on the free market and should be revoked.[/quote] It is not just the fact that the implementation time frame is short or resistance to safety regulation at issue here.  The larger question goes to the issue of failing to get the best system by mandating one that is inferior.  Here is a quote from the PTC link in the first post: He’s [Charles Banks] president of rail consulting firm R. L. Banks and Associates. He called PTC’s implementation <a href="http://www.enotrans.org/ctp-blog/positive-train-control-good-idea-terrible-implementation-and-blame-all-the-way-around" target="_blank">"terrible"</a>and said it’ll cost as much as $12 billion to get it running. Despite that cost, he told me the PTC technology might already be obsolete. Both in the form recommended by Congress and potential alternatives to it, PTC would use both wireless technologies and parts of wired technologies constituting existing signal systems, he said. The proposed system would overlay wireless technologies on top of existing signal systems. Alternatives would utilize less of the underlying technologies in existing signal systems. To some, the overlay of the two technologies is seen as an advantage because the alternatives would require a more thorough (and expensive) overhaul of the rail system. But Banks argues that failure to make PTC more robust equates to a jury-rigged solution and will minimize the benefits of the original concept. "Instead of improving the technology, they are overlaying new tech onto existing communications and signals systems," he said, and that’s a problem. "If you make the wrong investment, it actually postpones making the best investment," he said. Rushing PTC’s implementation now, in other words, will stall any tech advancements in the future.   [my emphasis added in orange]
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag