Blumenthal Statement on Major Railroads Failing to Meet 2018 PTC Deadline

(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal today released the following statement after major freight railroads, including Canadian National Railway, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – which account for a significant amount of track nationwide – and some commuter railroads informed the Federal Railroad Administration that they will not meet the 2018 deadline for installing life-saving Positive Train Control technology (PTC).

“Today's announcement proves that the 2018 ‘deadline’ was never a deadline at all - rather a distressing smokescreen allowing railroads to wait years beyond 2018 to finish implementing vital, life-saving positive train control technology. Clearly railroads never accepted 2018 as a goal, already declaring defeat, and treating 2020 as a deadline. By then, a half century will have passed since the National Transportation Safety Board first urged railroads to install PTC. This unnecessary delay is unacceptable, and I call on all railroads to follow the leadership of others moving quickly – like Amtrak – and finish implementation immediately, without delay or excuse.  Lives hang in the balance,” Blumenthal said.

Senator Blumenthal is a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. He strongly opposed a blanket extension of the PTC deadline from 2015 to 2018, arguing that, because of possible extensions, the move amounted to a five-year delay to 2020 – precisely what was demonstrated today.

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