House legislation that would give railroad companies an additional three-to-five years to implement “positive train control” (PTC) technology has gained broad bipartisan support since its introduction at the end of September, as lawmakers respond to warnings from the water sector and others about disastrous public health and economic consequences should rail freight shipments and passenger service come to a halt on December 31.
Sponsored by Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Penn.) and Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) the “Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act” (H.R. 3651) would delay the statutory deadline for railroads to implement PTC by three years to December 31, 2018. After that point, the bill would allow the federal government to grant, on a case-by-case basis, additional extensions totaling up to two years to railroads facing technical challenges in bringing PTC systems online.
H.R. 3651 had attracted a total of 149 House cosponsors – representing a mix of both Democrats and Republicans – as of October 23. Transportation legislation approved by a House committee on October 22 included a similar PTC delay, and the full U.S. Senate passed its own PTC extension in July.
PTC is an electronic system that is intended to sense and respond to excessive speeds or other indications that a crash or derailment could be imminent. Current law would impose daily fines on railroads that carry passenger service or shipments of hazardous chemicals (including gaseous chlorine and anhydrous ammonia) after December 31, 2015 without having PTC installed. But the vast majority of railroads in the U.S. are still years away from compliance, and many have threatened to suspend passenger service and chemical shipments at the end of the year unless the government extends the deadline.
AMWA and others in the water utility community wrote to Congress in support of H.R. 3651 earlier this month, warning that a failure to extend the PTC implementation deadline would interrupt deliveries of critical water treatment chemicals and threaten public health across the country.