{ "id": "R42637", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R42637", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 584562, "date": "2018-09-04", "retrieved": "2018-09-07T13:52:42.809032", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": "The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA08) requires implementation of positive train control (PTC) on railroads which carry passengers or have high-volume freight traffic with toxic- or poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous materials. PTC is a communications and signaling system that has been identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a technology capable of preventing incidents caused by train operator or dispatcher error. PTC is expected to reduce the number of incidents due to excessive speed, conflicting train movements, and engineer failure to obey wayside signals. It would not prevent incidents due to trespassing on railroads\u2019 right-of-way or at highway-rail grade crossings, where the vast majority of rail-related fatalities occur, and might not work well in some passenger terminal areas.\nUnder RSIA08, PTC is required on about 60,000 miles of railroad track. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) estimates full PTC implementation will cost approximately $14 billion. Progress among railroads in installing and operating PTC is mixed: a few large freight and commuter railroads show substantial progress while many others show much less progress. Federal funding provided thus far includes about $2 billion in loans and grants, mostly for commuter lines. After freight and commuter railroads raised concerns about their ability to meet the December 31, 2015, deadline in RSIA08, Congress extended the deadline by three years to December 31, 2018, or up to two years beyond that for certain qualifying railroads (P.L. 114-73). A July 2018 FRA report indicates that possibly all railroads will seek to qualify for an extension beyond the December 31, 2018, deadline, mostly for completing testing of their PTC systems.\nPTC uses signals and sensors along the track to communicate train location, speed restrictions, and moving authority. If the locomotive is violating a speed restriction or moving authority, on-board equipment will automatically slow or stop the train. A more expansive version of PTC, called communications-based train control (CBTC), would bring additional safety benefits plus business benefits for railroad operators, such as increased capacity and reduced fuel consumption. However, CBTC is not currently being installed by any U.S. railroad, due to the additional cost and the challenge of meeting implementation deadlines.\nIn addition to funding requests for maintaining the PTC systems, Congress may be confronted with issues related to interoperability and barriers to market entry as railroads work toward implementing PTC.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42637", "sha1": "89475c3cc29604ac820025e011f41ebb8606c5d9", "filename": "files/20180904_R42637_89475c3cc29604ac820025e011f41ebb8606c5d9.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/0.png": "files/20180904_R42637_images_14b57db67caf335caa5701eee767c2054dd62868.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/1.png": "files/20180904_R42637_images_0322974192200b72a14c097d8310fc958af6b195.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/2.png": "files/20180904_R42637_images_1d37cb4eb40701655f4c2dbec5376dfc63b0af4f.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42637", "sha1": "fe21175adc5bf99e2bc7de146018dd4110b0c81b", "filename": "files/20180904_R42637_fe21175adc5bf99e2bc7de146018dd4110b0c81b.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4871, "name": "Telecommunications & Internet Policy" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4939, "name": "Transportation Safety" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 578176, "date": "2018-02-06", "retrieved": "2018-02-06T23:41:49.335264", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": "The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA08) requires implementation of positive train control (PTC) on railroads which carry passengers or have high-volume freight traffic with toxic- or poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous materials. PTC is a communications and signaling system that has been identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a technology capable of preventing incidents caused by train operator or dispatcher error. PTC is expected to reduce the number of incidents due to excessive speed, conflicting train movements, and engineer failure to obey wayside signals. It would not prevent incidents due to trespassing on railroads\u2019 right-of-way or at highway-rail grade crossings, where the vast majority of rail-related fatalities occur, and might not work well in some passenger terminal areas.\nUnder RSIA08, PTC is required on about 60,000 miles of railroad track. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) estimates full PTC implementation will cost approximately $14 billion. Progress among railroads in installing and operating PTC is mixed: a few large freight and commuter railroads show substantial progress while many others show much less progress. Federal funding provided thus far includes about $2 billion in loans and grants, mostly for commuter lines. After freight and commuter railroads raised concerns about their ability to meet the December 31, 2015, deadline in RSIA08, Congress extended the deadline by three years to December 31, 2018, or up to two years beyond that for certain qualifying railroads (P.L. 114-73).\nPTC uses signals and sensors along the track to communicate train location, speed restrictions, and moving authority. If the locomotive is violating a speed restriction or moving authority, on-board equipment will automatically slow or stop the train. A more expansive version of PTC, called communications-based train control (CBTC), would bring additional safety benefits plus business benefits for railroad operators, such as increased capacity and reduced fuel consumption. However, CBTC is not currently being installed by any U.S. railroad, due to the additional cost and the challenge of meeting implementation deadlines.\nIn addition to funding requests, Congress may be confronted with issues related to interoperability, radio spectrum, and barriers to market entry as railroads work toward implementing PTC.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42637", "sha1": "6e74dde81b7210f7571bccc670752d6f1a424e58", "filename": "files/20180206_R42637_6e74dde81b7210f7571bccc670752d6f1a424e58.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/0.png": "files/20180206_R42637_images_692fb7e0694ef0aa745bdc8cec515bae80972bb9.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/1.png": "files/20180206_R42637_images_5783f0e8e238fdc1261285384d0287e0c79b94b7.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R42637_files&id=/2.png": "files/20180206_R42637_images_a4f4703909e3ffcb5952be6cce4d9c53acd88ebc.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42637", "sha1": "bdc4270a3a656e8d255d61d10df182c70d4cf87b", "filename": "files/20180206_R42637_bdc4270a3a656e8d255d61d10df182c70d4cf87b.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4871, "name": "Telecommunications & Internet Policy" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4939, "name": "Transportation Safety" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 452855, "date": "2016-05-26", "retrieved": "2016-06-21T21:13:48.797819", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": "The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA08) requires implementation of positive train control (PTC) on railroads which carry passengers or have high-volume freight traffic with toxic- or poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous materials. PTC is a communications and signaling system that has been identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a technology capable of preventing incidents caused by train operator or dispatcher error. PTC is expected to reduce the number of incidents due to excessive speed, conflicting train movements, and engineer failure to obey wayside signals. It would not prevent incidents due to trespassing on railroads\u2019 right-of-way or at highway-rail grade crossings, where the vast majority of rail-related fatalities occur.\nUnder RSIA08, PTC is required on about 60,000 miles of railroad track. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) estimates full PTC implementation will cost approximately $14 billion. Although the larger freight railroads are well along in planning for PTC, some smaller railroads and commuter lines have more difficulty funding implementation. Federal funding provided thus far includes about $1.2 billion in loans and grants, mostly for commuter lines. After freight and commuter railroads raised concerns about their ability to meet the December 31, 2015, deadline in RSIA08, Congress extended the deadline by three years to December 31, 2018, or up to two years beyond that for certain qualifying railroads (P.L. 114-73).\nPTC uses signals and sensors along the track to communicate train location, speed restrictions, and moving authority. If the locomotive is violating a speed restriction or moving authority, on-board equipment will automatically slow or stop the train. A more expansive version of PTC, called communications-based train control (CBTC), would bring additional safety benefits plus business benefits for railroad operators, such as increased capacity and reduced fuel consumption. However, CBTC is not currently being installed by any U.S. railroad, due to the additional cost and the challenge of meeting implementation deadlines.\nIn addition to funding requests, Congress may be confronted with issues related to interoperability, radio spectrum, and barriers to market entry as railroads work toward implementing PTC.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42637", "sha1": "b5999ac847f897d1459ec1e6f9c7a4633191fbf6", "filename": "files/20160526_R42637_b5999ac847f897d1459ec1e6f9c7a4633191fbf6.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42637", "sha1": "2024a17606f7661316e02de7d60e025fe6c892a8", "filename": "files/20160526_R42637_2024a17606f7661316e02de7d60e025fe6c892a8.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 2111, "name": "Telecommunications and Media Convergence" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3760, "name": "Surface Transportation" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 437830, "date": "2015-02-02", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T19:33:56.643433", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": "The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSIA08) requires implementation of positive train control (PTC) on railroads which carry passengers or have high-volume freight traffic with toxic- or poisonous-by-inhalation hazardous materials. PTC is a communications and signaling system that has been identified by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as a technology capable of preventing incidents caused by train operator or dispatcher error. PTC is expected to reduce the number of incidents due to excessive speed, conflicting train movements, and engineer failure to obey wayside signals. It would not prevent incidents due to trespassing on railroads\u2019 right-of-way or at highway-rail grade crossings, where the vast majority of rail-related fatalities occur.\nUnder RSIA08, PTC is required on about 60,000 miles of railroad track by December 31, 2015. Many railroad companies are uncertain of their ability to fully implement PTC by this deadline. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) estimates full PTC implementation will cost approximately $14 billion. Although the larger freight railroads are well along in planning for PTC, some smaller railroads and commuter lines have more difficulty funding implementation.\nPTC uses signals and sensors along the track to communicate train location, speed restrictions, and moving authority. If the locomotive is violating a speed restriction or moving authority, on-board equipment will automatically slow or stop the train. A more expansive version of PTC, called communications-based train control (CBTC), would bring additional safety benefits plus business benefits for railroad operators, such as increased capacity and reduced fuel consumption. However, CBTC is not currently being installed by any U.S. railroad, due to the additional cost and to uncertainty about implementation of PTC before the 2015 deadline.\nPTC is an issue in the reauthorization of RSIA08, which expired at the end of FY2013. Two bills introduced in the 112th Congress, S. 1813 as approved by the Senate and H.R. 7 as approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would have extended the deadline and made other policy changes. No language relating to PTC was included in the final surface transportation bill (P.L. 112-141) enacted on July 6, 2012. In the 113th Congress, bills were introduced to extend the deadline (S. 1462) and provide federal financial assistance for implementing PTC (H.R. 3634). Neither bill was enacted. If it wishes to reexamine the PTC mandate, possible options for Congress include\npostponing the implementation deadline;\nconsidering whether to make dedicated radio spectrum available to the railroads for PTC implementation and, if so, how to compensate current license holders of that spectrum;\nexamining possible alternatives to PTC and their potential to create barriers to competition in the rail freight market; and\nproviding federal financial support for PTC implementation by making PTC projects eligible for funding under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Funding Program or by appropriating other funding to FRA, as authorized in RSIA08.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42637", "sha1": "bd4c271036a502a591c39b2abc6194c0aece03c9", "filename": "files/20150202_R42637_bd4c271036a502a591c39b2abc6194c0aece03c9.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42637", "sha1": "ef12ff4d4fa475488bc3f83030025ea8a61c3535", "filename": "files/20150202_R42637_ef12ff4d4fa475488bc3f83030025ea8a61c3535.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 2111, "name": "Telecommunications and Media Convergence" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3760, "name": "Surface Transportation" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc816833/", "id": "R42637_2013Apr05", "date": "2013-04-05", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20130405_R42637_d1f51e634df6ce404dd6f74beed3adceb36e3b07.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20130405_R42637_d1f51e634df6ce404dd6f74beed3adceb36e3b07.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc122232/", "id": "R42637_2012Jul30", "date": "2012-07-30", "retrieved": "2012-11-30T09:28:34", "title": "Positive Train Control (PTC): Overview and Policy Issues", "summary": "This report gives and overview of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and discusses policy issues related to it. Congress passed the Act following several high-profile train accidents; it mandates positive train control (PTC) on many passenger and freight railroads by December 31, 2015.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120730_R42637_10227680232a6392c6074eb54aeb6becbf4c403e.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120730_R42637_10227680232a6392c6074eb54aeb6becbf4c403e.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Railroad law", "name": "Railroad law" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Transportation", "name": "Transportation" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Transportation law and legislation", "name": "Transportation law and legislation" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Railroad passenger traffic", "name": "Railroad passenger traffic" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Railroad policy", "name": "Railroad policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Railroad freight operations", "name": "Railroad freight operations" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Transportation Policy" ] }