Metro-North safe from Amtrak positive train control threats

Attention Metro-North riders: Have no fear about Amtrak's threats here.

The national railroad's CEO Richard Anderson threatened to kick railroads off Amtrak-owned rails if they do not meet the Dec. 31 positive train control deadline at a Thursday morning hearing of the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee.

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"Under the present rules, we cannot permit noncompliant equipment on our railroad after the deadline and we are working with these railroads and the (Federal Railroad Administration) to determine the path forward," Anderson testified.

While Metro-North still has significant strides to make in getting the life-saving safety technology installed, the railroad owns the Harlem, Hudson and New Haven lines as is largely immune from the threats.

A former airline executive, Anderson took over Amtrak in 2017. He said Thursday Amtrak had implemented the safety system across nearly all of the Northeast Corridor and is on track to meet the federally-mandated deadline.

While Metro-North, the Long Island Railroad and NJ Transit have all insisted they would meet the deadline, a Journal News/lohud.com analysis of FRA data shows all three railroads would have to pick up the pace considerably in 2018 if they are to do so.

Of the three, NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor line is the only service that would be affected should Amtrak follow through on its threat.

PTC

Positive train control can stop derailments and collisions via a system of electronics installed on trains and both on tracks and alongside them, providing a fail safe for human error.

The technology would have prevented the 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment, which killed four and injured more than 60 and likely would have prevented recent crashes in Washington State and South Carolina. Congress mandated all railroads have positive train control by 2015 after a 2008 rail crash in Los Angeles. A three-year extension was given in 2018.

American Public Transportation Association President Paul Skoutelas said total installation would total $4 billion for commuter railroads. The federal government has provided $2.3 billion of that in loans and grants, nearly $1 billion of that was issued to Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad in 2015.

FRA Chief Counsel Juan Reyes said the biggest challenges for railroads is not funding, but issues with suppliers.

NY congressman grills FRA

U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney grilled Reyes on the matter at the hearing.

"They are working diligently (on PTC)," Reyes said in reference to Metro-North and the Long Island Railroad. "They have not asked for an extension."

Maloney insisted Reyes say whether or not the railroads would meet the deadline. Reyes would not answer.

"This is February of 2018," he said, noting railroads regularly come in for discussions with the FRA. "Right now, they've presented a plan that says they'll be able to meet the deadline.

"I'm working with them," he added. "I'm not willing to give up on any railroad."

Maloney told him the next time Metro-North comes in "you should mention the name Jimmy Lovell."

"He's a guy who got killed in Spuyten Duyvil in 2013. He got on a train in Cold Spring, New York that morning to go work on the lighting on the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree," Maloney said. "He doesn't come home anymore, because that preventable accident happened that day."

Twitter: @coynereports