Hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Thune, Hearing on Implementation of Positive Train Control

Hearing

We convene today's hearing at a critical time for positive train control, or PTC, implementation. We are approximately three months away from the December 31, 2018, statutory deadline for implementation, and recent reports suggest that some railroads may not meet their legal obligations by the end of the year. Specifically, according to the Federal Railroad Administration's most recent quarterly progress report, nine commuter railroads were at risk of not meeting the minimum statutory criteria required to qualify for an extension by the end of the year.

The Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in October 2015, extended the original deadline of December 31, 2015, amid reports that no railroad could meet the deadline and many railroads were contemplating halting passenger rail service or shipments of essential supplies for agricultural production and water purification. This Committee, on a bipartisan basis, took action to avert a rail shutdown and set a realistic framework for implementation.

The law now requires railroads to implement PTC by December 31, 2018, but it allows a railroad to apply for an extension of up to 24 months to ensure PTC works as intended if, and only if, that railroad meets important milestones like full PTC hardware installation, spectrum acquisition, and employee training, and meets other milestones, such as implementing PTC on a specific territory or initiating revenue service demonstration. For Class I freight railroads and Amtrak, the bar is higher--PTC must be implemented or in revenue service demonstration on a majority of the required territories or route miles.

Since March 2018, under Administrator Batory's leadership, railroads have made significant progress in PTC implementation, which is an enormously complex undertaking. As of June 30th, the end date for the most recent progress report, freight railroads had 93 percent of locomotives equipped and PTC operable and passenger railroads had completed 73 percent of their locomotive installation. With respect to radio towers, freight railroads have installed 99 percent of necessary radio towers and passenger railroads have installed 91 percent, an increase of nearly 20 percent for passenger railroads in just the last quarter. Overall, 66 percent of freight route miles were in PTC operation as of June 30th and 24 percent of passenger route miles were in PTC operation.

There is clearly more work to do, but Administrator Batory has been instrumental in stepping up FRA's oversight of PTC implementation. Since the beginning of the year, FRA has met individually with executives from each of the 41 railroads required to implement PTC, applying direct oversight railroad-by-railroad. FRA also has met individually with the major PTC system component suppliers, has held three symposia to share best practices and expectations with regulated entities, and awarded over $200 million in grant funding for PTC implementation, pushing the total Federal support to well over $3 billion.

As I stated in February, FRA should have had a confirmed Administrator--especially one as qualified as Mr. Batory--much sooner. We owed it to the traveling public to do everything we could to help eliminate future collisions. However, I am pleased to say that Administrator Batory was confirmed, despite over six months of obstruction, and his leadership has made a difference for successful implementation.

With that said, there continue to be railroads at risk of not qualifying for an extension at the end of the year, and that is a major focus of today's hearing. If commuter railroads do not meet the requirements of the law by the end of the year, we must understand any effects this may have on the many riders who rely on rail service to commute to work, see family members, or visit a doctor. We also need to have a clear picture of FRA's enforcement strategy for entities that may not comply with the law.

Finally, this hearing will provide an opportunity to examine the path to full implementation-- whether it is working through complex interoperability challenges between railroads or FRA's reviewing final safety plans.

This morning, we will be hearing from a panel of witnesses that have great expertise in positive train control and who can provide useful insight into the end-of-year deadline as well as full implementation. I look forward to all of your testimonies.

I will now turn to Ranking Member Nelson for any opening remarks.

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