With the nation’s railroads having met a late 2020 deadline to install and begin using positive train control systems, the National Transportation Safety Board has checked three key PTC safety requirements off its to do list.
Those recommendations to Canadian National, CSX and Chicago commuter carrier Metra were related to equipping their trains with a PTC system.
In a news release, the NTSB said its recommendations to those railroads will be classified as “closed — acceptable action.”
The NTSB has long made installation of PTC one of its top priorities and it was shown on its 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of transportation safety improvements.
The NTSB had recommended that CSX install a PTC system after a February 1996, collision between Amtrak and Maryland Rail Commuter passenger trains operating on CSX tracks near Silver Spring, Maryland, that left three crew members and eight passengers dead..
The Metra recommendation followed an October 2003 derailment that injured 47 and occurred as a train traveled 68 mph in a 10 mph zone.
The CN recommendation followed a head-on collision in July 2004 at Anding, Mississippi, that left four crew members dead.
“I’ve seen up close the devastation and heartbreak a rail catastrophe brings,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “We will silently mark our success with every train crash prevented, every life saved by this technology.”
Tags: Canadian National, CSX, Metra, National Transportation Safety Board, Positive train control, PTC implementation, Robert Sumwalt
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