- January 1, 2019
- Posted by: Sage Shield Safety Consultants
- Category: Overseas Occupational Health And Safety News
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Monday marks the federal due date when all traveler trains throughout the nation are supposed to have an automatic braking system that was mandated by Congress more than a years ago.
The most-ridden commuter rail line in Texas will not have the life-saving braking gadget in operation.
The Trinity Train Express (TRE), which takes on typical 8,000 guests between Fort Worth and Dallas daily, has actually completed setting up the equipment needed for a positive train control (PTC) system but requires another 2 years to have the system totally functional.
TRE train(CBS 11)In 2008, Congress bought all trains to set up a PTC system after 25 people were killed in a train crash in Chatsworth, California.
Since then the federal government has pressed back the due date from 2015 to 2018 and now from 2018 to 2020. Chatsworth, California train collision(CBS News)In September, the TRE wrote the Federal Railway Administration(FRA)that having the system in operation”would not be possible”by the December 31, 2018 deadline. With just one supplier capable of doing the work, TRE authorities
said setting up PTC technology has actually been much more difficult than originally anticipated.”We want things were much easier however they are not,”said spokesperson Morgan Lyons, “Fortunately is we remain in compliance.”
Last month, the railway administration granted the TRE an extension pressing back the PTC deadline to December 31, 2020.
North Texas’ other commuter rail line, the A-train run by the Denton County Transport Authority (DCTA), has become the very first in Texas to have PTC up and running.
The A-train, a 21-mile commuter railway linking Denton and Dallas counties, started running its trains with PTC technology this month.
DCTA authorities said the system still requires last accreditation from the federal government to meet all the mandated PTC requirements.
A-train (CBS 11 )The way the technology works is computer systems installed on the trains and along the tracks inform the engineer if the train is going too quick or if
there is a problem with the track ahead. If the engineer does not decrease, the system automatically stops the train.”It eliminates any human error,”described DCTA Director of Rail Providers Rony Philip.
inside A-train (CBS 11) While DCTA is ahead of many railway in the nation, train officials said the years long process of setting up a PTC system has been challenging.
“In the beginning there was almost no assistance, no financing from the federal government. We practically had to go back to square one,” Philip stated.
Because 2008, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been 23 train crashes across the country, resulting in 52 deaths, that could have been prevented if the trains had PTC technology.
