Trio of Illinois Congressmen urge passing of PTC extension

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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Office of Rep. Mike Quigley

On Oct. 21, U.S. Reps. Mike Quigley (D-IL-5), a member of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations subcommittee, Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04), a member of the House Agriculture Committee and Dan Lipinski (D-IL-03)

, a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, along with leaders of the rail industry, urged Congress to act immediately to extend the upcoming deadline for implementing positive train control (PTC) safety technology and prevent a shutdown of the nation’s passenger and freight rail system.

“The consequences for inaction on positive train control are too great. The time Congress has to avert an economic disaster is too short,” said Rep. Quigley.

The representatives recognized that many of the railroads required to implement the technology by the Dec. 31 deadline will not make it and also noted the devastating effect a rail shutdown would have on the economy. This week, Norfolk Southern issued a notice it would not accept Poisonous-Inhalation-hazard commodities as of Dec. 1 and would not permit passenger trains to travel on its network after Dec. 31. Other railroads are mulling the possibility of partial or total shutdown of their systems to avoid operating outside the law.

The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee is marking up its version of a six-year transportation bill on Oct. 22. H.R. 3763 includes language that would extended the PTC deadline, but as Railway Age explains, it’s complicated.

“The economic damage caused by a shutdown of our nation’s rail network would be as grave as it would be unnecessary,” said Rep. Newhouse.

Rep. Lipinski stated, “I’m pleased that House and Senate negotiators have come to an agreement on an extension of the Positive Train Control (PTC) mandate that sets the bar high for safety and holds the railroads’ feet to the fire. This extension would provide an additional three years for railroads to install the technology and obtain bandwidth, but for any further extensions the railroads must meet benchmarks that demonstrate serious progress and investment. Congress must closely track the progress of the railroads to ensure that they are making sufficient investments in PTC so that they will complete installation as quickly as possible. Now that we have an agreement, we need Congress to pass this extension without delay.”

Also in attendance at the press conference was Edward Hamberger, president and chief executive officer of the Association of American Railroads; Martin Oberman, chairman of Chicago’s Metra and Chris Jahn, president of The Fertilizer Institute, as well as members who signed the bipartisan letter led by representatives.

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