§20157 Implementation of Positive Train Control Systems

Summary

Railroads must send the U.S. Department of Transportation a revised plan within 90 days after the 2015 Act was passed showing how they will put in place a positive train control (PTC) system by December 31, 2018. The plan must cover main lines used by regular passenger trains, routes that carry toxic-by-inhalation hazardous materials, and any other tracks the Department says. Plans must explain how the PTC will work with other railroads, how higher-risk areas will be done first when practical, and meet content rules in 49 C.F.R. 236.1011. Plans must say when needed radio spectrum will be acquired, list total PTC hardware to be installed (by major category and by year), show how many employees need PTC training and how many will be trained each year, describe remaining technical or funding challenges (like interoperability, spectrum, software, permitting, and testing), and give a schedule for finishing. A railroad may propose an alternative schedule that finishes as soon as possible but no later than 24 months after the December 31, 2018 deadline. The Department will review any alternative schedule when the railroad asks, and must decide within 90 days whether to approve it. If approved, the railroad must follow that new deadline. If a review is pending, the original deadline is extended until the Department decides. Railroads must implement PTC in line with their approved plans and may ask to amend plans under existing rules. The Department can offer technical help, set rules that define essential PTC functions and how systems are qualified, and assess civil penalties for violations, including failing to file or follow plans, amendments, or approved alternative schedules. Railroads must report progress starting March 31, 2016 and then every year until PTC is fully implemented. Reports must include the spectrum status, yearly hardware and training totals by territory, whether the railroad is keeping its schedule, updates on challenges, resources for passenger carriers, and route miles with PTC started or in demonstration versus miles required. The Department will review plans at least once a year and will post reports online within 60 days, excluding proprietary or security-sensitive material. The Secretary must send Congress a progress report by July 1, 2018. The Department must certify any PTC system or component before it is used in regular revenue service, though it can allow phased provisional operation to help a safe roll-out. For one year after the last Class I carrier has fully certified and implemented its PTC system on required lines, some operational rules tied to PTC failures do not apply if the carrier keeps an equivalent or greater level of safety and reports failures and fixes. Small railroads get extensions: within 120 days after the Act the Department must amend a regulation to push certain locomotive equipping deadlines back by 3 years. When a host railroad is ready to start revenue service demonstration, it must notify tenant railroads. Host railroads must file electronic PTC performance reports on Form FRA F 6180.152 on a quarterly schedule (April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31) showing initialization failures, cutouts, malfunctions (by component), enforcements, likely prevented accidents, initialization attempts, train miles under PTC, and actions to fix problems. Three years after the Passenger Rail Expansion and Rail Safety Act of 2021, the Department may reduce reporting to at least twice a year unless quarterly reports are justified. Tenant railroads must continuously give the required data to host railroads. Railroads using specific FRA-approved PTC types had to start submitting the enforcement count by January 31, 2023. Definitions (one line each): equivalent or greater level of safety — meeting prior operating rules and applicable safety regulations; hardware — physical PTC equipment such as radios, wayside units, on-board devices, towers, and back office gear; interoperability — ability for host and tenant locomotives to communicate with and obey the PTC across property boundaries; main line — track with 5,000,000 or more gross tons per year (or other tracks the Department defines); positive train control system — a system to prevent train-to-train collisions, overspeed derailments, work zone incursions, and wrong-switch movements.