Federal Railroad Administration Proposes Supplemental PTC Regulations

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WASHINGTON, D.C. –– The FRA has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that focuses on additional regulations for positive train control operation.

The proposed rule is focused on situations when PTC systems need to be shut down for software upgrades, system maintenance and any occasion when the system shuts down, either intentionally or unintentionally.

Readers will recall that, according to the Association of American Railroads, “PTC is designed to prevent train-to-train collisions or derailments caused by excessive speed; unauthorized train movement onto sections of track where maintenance activities are taking place; and movement of a train through a track switch left in the wrong position. It does not prevent accidents caused as a result of track or equipment failure, improper vehicular movement through a grade crossing, trespassing or certain types of train operator error.”

The FRA has decided that uniform processes need to be established for all rail PTC systems and train operation when a PTC system is down. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be downloaded below. Key points in the proposal include:

“This NPRM proposes to establish strict parameters and operating restrictions under which railroads may continue to operate safely in three specific scenarios when PTC technology is temporarily not governing rail operations:

• “When non-revenue passenger equipment needs to operate to a maintenance facility or yard, for the sole purpose of repairing or exchanging PTC technology;
• When a PTC system needs to be temporarily disabled to facilitate repair, maintenance, an infrastructure upgrade, or a capital project; and
• When a system-level or widescale problem occurs resulting in multiple trains’ PTC systems failing to initialize.”

The proposed rule offers more detail on these provisions:

“First, FRA is proposing to establish an exception, under 49 CFR 236.1006(b)(6), to permit, under certain conditions, non-revenue passenger equipment to operate to maintenance facilities or yards, without being governed by PTC technology. This NPRM proposes to extend the exception currently afforded to certain freight movements to movements of non-revenue passenger equipment, including equipment that is owned or controlled by an intercity passenger railroad or commuter railroad.

“This proposed exception would enable non-revenue passenger equipment, including a locomotive, locomotive consist, or train without passengers onboard, to operate to a maintenance facility or yard for the sole purpose of repairing or exchanging a PTC system or component. Commuter railroads have informed FRA this proposed exception would be beneficial and necessary, as it would enable them, for example, to operate a PTC-equipped locomotive, where the onboard PTC technology is not functioning and requires repair, to a maintenance facility or yard to repair or exchange the PTC system. To ensure rail safety, FRA is proposing to impose six conditions on each movement of non-revenue passenger equipment subject to this exception, including speed and distance restrictions, the requirement to establish an absolute block (meaning no other traffic may be present in the area), and other protections of the route.

“Second, FRA proposes to improve the existing process, under 49 CFR 236.1021(m), that railroads currently utilize to request and obtain FRA’s approval to disable their PTC systems temporarily when necessary to facilitate repair, maintenance, infrastructure upgrades, and capital projects. This NPRM proposes to add paragraph (m)(4) to existing § 236.1021 to focus on this specific type of request for amendment (RFA) to PTC systems (i.e., where a temporary PTC system outage is proposed), as it is different from other types of RFAs that railroads submit under § 236.1021 and requires additional FRA oversight.

“FRA proposes to require railroads to provide additional, essential information in an RFA that seeks to temporarily disable a PTC system to enable FRA to evaluate more fully the scope, circumstances, and necessity of a proposed temporary outage and properly determine whether granting the request is in the public interest and consistent with railroad safety. For example, this NPRM proposes to impose nine additional content requirements for this specific type of RFA, including certain justifications, safety analyses, mitigations, and other documentation to demonstrate the proposed outage is as narrow in scope impact, and duration, as possible.

“Third, FRA proposes to reintroduce as a permanent provision a version of a temporary provision regarding PTC system initialization failures, which expired on December 31, 2022. The expired regulatory provision previously permitted any train, including an individual train, to keep operating subject to certain restrictions, if the train failed to initialize for any reason prior to the train’s departure from its initial terminal. In FRA’s 2014 final rule, FRA authorized this provision temporarily, recognizing that “there may be issues that could be identified and resolved in the early days following PTC system implementation and revenue service operation.” In 2014, FRA also observed that “[e]xperience over these intervening years will provide more empirical data on PTC system reliability, and may be a basis for FRA to revisit this issue at a later date should circumstances warrant.”

“FRA’s intention in this NPRM, by proposing to reintroduce an updated version of this provision, is to address only system-level outages or failures that result in multiple trains’ PTC systems failing to initialize, impacting the trains of the host railroad and often most, if not all, of its tenant railroads. Currently, if a PTC system fails to initialize, trains are generally prohibited from operating, which has resulted in situations where passengers could be stranded, and vital freight shipments halted.

“Although PTC technology is generally reliable and robust, it is a complex technology, composed of many subsystems and dependent on external networks, and it continues to experience unplanned outages. For example, railroads’ Quarterly Reports of PTC System Performance show that PTC technology failed to initialize on approximately 236 intercity passenger or commuter trains and 894 freight trains in 2023. Additionally, based on voluntary reporting by railroads, FRA is aware of eight (8) system-level outages that occurred in 2023 that caused multiple trains to fail to initialize.

You can download the complete Notice here: