PTC Progress – NJ Transit and New Mexico River Rail Runner respond
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
This week, RT&S reported on the FRA’s quarterly summary of PTC implementation progress, along with a second report providing some details around NJ Transit’s progress.
As two commuter railroads that the Federal Railroad Administration expressed concern about not meeting the 12.31.2020 PTC implementation deadline, RT&S reached out to both NJ Transit and New Mexico Rail Runner Express to gain some insight on why they’re running behind.
NJ Transit’s Nancy Snyder said “We have been working closely with the FRA, and they have approved our implementation plan. We have a path toward full, successful PTC implementation by the federally mandated deadline of December 31, 2020.”
Snyder also said that the NJ Transit website provides the Parsons engineer report which outlines the timeline to achieve full PTC implementation by December 31, 2020. https://www.njtransit.com/ptc
New Mexico Rail Runner Express’ Augusta Meyers said “Finding and securing funding was a huge hurdle for us. Once that was in place, we spent much time and effort negotiating a contract with Wabtec to get it just right. This process along took several months.
“Our goal is to still meet the December 31st deadline, but this requires working with several different contractors as well as working closely with the FRA.”
