Letter to Sarah Feinberg, Acting Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration - Hold Railroads Accountable for Failure to Install, Implement Life-Saving PTC Technology

Letter

Dear Acting Administrator Feinberg:

Last week, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) unveiled a troubling report stating that nearly every railroad in the country will fail to meet the December 31, 2015 deadline for implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) technology. These widespread, indefinite delays are deeply disturbing. The report provides scant information on your agency's plans to impose penalties and provide incentivizes. I write to request more clarity as to how you intend to discipline railroads that fail to meet deadlines.

As you know, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) first urged railroads to adopt PTC technology soon after a deadly train crash killed four in Darien, Connecticut in 1969. In the many decades since, this critical, life-saving technology could have prevented hundreds of other deaths and thousands of injuries. Railroads need to be held accountable for their deliberate or negligent failure to comply with an existing legal deadline. Unfortunately, FRA's report provides little new information on how your agency -- the agency responsible for safety oversight -- plans to discipline railroads that fail to comply with existing deadlines. Instead, the report provides a general schedule of fines, notes that FRA has discretion in their implementation, and just vaguely cautions that penalties "could" be "substantial."

More than just rhetoric, the FRA must demonstrate that willful or even negligent failure to set deadlines and meet them will have meaningful consequences. Railroads must have clear incentive to implement PTC by the December 31 deadline -- which remains current law, despite ongoing debate in Congress. The disciplinary regimen must be real and realistic with a penalty approach that recognizes good faith efforts and punishes intentional violations. This approach was reflected in the legislation that Senators Feinstein, Schumer and I introduced earlier this year. The penalties you impose must be stiff and severe to properly sanction inaction. They should be more than in effect the cost of doing business for railroads, allowing continued delay, death and injury.

The penalties imposed should be borne by these railroads -- not by states like Connecticut or by the commuters and riders who deserve safe and reliable service. Factual evidence should be required to show diligent, good faith efforts of railroads to plan, finance and implement PTC by the deadline.

In short, I ask for a complete explanation of how FRA will use its discretion to institute the schedule of fines and penalties and for your assurance that FRA will act as strongly and vigorously as possible in carrying out its oversight and enforcement role. If railroads believe they can avoid consequences for deliberate delay or negligent avoidance, the critical goal of PTC implementation will be illusory.

I appreciate your response to this matter.

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