According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), at the end of 2019, the Positive Train Control (PTC) was in operation on 98.5 percent of the required Class I route miles.
The largest railway companies remain on track to meet the final deadline for full implementation, December 31, 2020, with several companies already operating the technology across their entire required PTC footprint.
For the remainder of this year, the Class I railways will continue to focus on testing to ensure that PTC systems are fully interoperable and work seamlessly across operations as railways regularly run across each other’s tracks.
“America’s freight railways will finish the job on PTC by the final December 2020 deadline. PTC, coupled with other advanced technologies, drives down risk and fuels railways’ next leap forward to ensure our people, infrastructure and equipment are safer than ever. The companies are committed to an accident-free future, and fully implementing PTC continues our industry’s progress toward that ultimate target,” AAR president Ian Jefferies said.
As of January 2020, all the locomotives were equipped with PTC, the wayside units and radio towers were 100 percent installed and all employees were trained. PTC was in operation on 98.5 percent of the required Class I route km.
At the end of 2019, Class I railway companies invested almost USD 11.5 billion in PTC.
All Class I railways met the December 2018 requirements, which allowed them up to an additional 2 years to test and ensure the system is fully interoperable. By December 31, 2020, all Class I railways must complete the necessary tests and must fully implement the PTC across the network.
Share on:
