[Scan-DC] Amtrak was close to turning on PTC, Boardman says

[Blair Thompson]

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/amtrak/news/Amtrak-was-close-to-turning-on-PTC-Boardman-says--44473

Amtrak was close to turning on PTC, Boardman says

5/15/2015
Rail News: Amtrak

Amtrak was close to the testing phase of implementing positive train control (PTC) on track at the Philadelphia location of the fatal train derailment, Amtrak Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman confirmed in a news conference yesterday. 

"We're very close to being able to cut it in," Boardman said, according to a report in The New York Times. "We've got to do testing on MHz radios. We will complete this by the end of the year." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/us/amtrak-says-it-was-just-months-away-from-installing-safety-system.html

However, funding shortfalls and bureaucratic delays slowed the technology’s deployment, the Times article quoted officials who were briefed after the accident as saying. Because the government failed to provide railroads with access to radio spectrum necessary to make the system work, Amtrak had to negotiate for privately owned airwaves, according to the article.

But in a post on Amtrak's blog, Boardman said that Amtrak "takes full responsibility and deeply apologizes for our role in this tragic event," and is fully cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) investigation.

http://blog.amtrak.com/2015/05/message-president-ceo-joe-boardman-train-188/
....

APTA: Commuter railroads committed to PTC

Yesterday, American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Melaniphy said that commuter railroads are "100 percent committed” to implementing PTC, but challenges remain. He disputed news media reports that said PTC technology is "fully developed" and ready to be deployed. The technology has been under development since the law was passed, and is still being developed, he said.

"PTC is a communications intense technology which requires radio spectrum to transmit data between trains and communications towers. Acquiring radio spectrum is a ... significant challenge in implementing PTC," Melaniphy said in a prepared statement. "APTA has asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allocate free radio spectrum for commuter railroads as a public safety priority, yet so far, it has refused to do so. Congress has not requested the FCC to do this either, despite the fact that they mandated the implementation of this safety technology." 

As of April, commuter railroads have spent a total of $950 million of their own funds on PTC, he said. Half of those railroads have indicated they've deferred other capital projects as a result.
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