railfan.com/railnews Mossbrae Daylight


A special train departed Oakland, Calif., on June 20 for an overnight stay in Dunsmuir. Dubbed the Mossbrae Daylight, its purpose was to promote building a new, safe hiking trail to Dunsmuir’s Mossbrae Falls. The beautiful falls are currently only accessible via a hazardous route that requires hiking the Union Pacifi c tracks along the Sacramento River. The fi ve-car private train was pulled by Amtrak locomotives 114 and 132. The cars included the Pony Express baggage car with a “Friends of Mossbrae Falls” banner, the Santa Fe Tolani coach, The Rio Grande Royal Gorge lounge car, the Plaza Santa Fe dome car and the Yerba Buena observation business car featuring a Mossbrae Daylight drumhead.


PHOTO BY STEVE CARTER Feinberg: FRA Penalties Will be Enforced for PTC Delays


FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION acting administrator Sarah Feinberg said she is prepared to enforce civil monetary pen- alties for any railroad that does not have Positive Train Control implemented by January 1, 2016. The fines will total be- tween $2500 and $25,000 per violation, per day. Feinberg said the penalties are “designed to bring railroads that are in violation of the deadline into compliance with the law as soon as safely possible.” At a June 24 hearing of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Com- mittee’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Feinberg explained, “Fines will be based on (our) PTC penalty guidelines, which establish different penalties depending on the violation,” Feinberg explained, “The fines may be assessed per violation, per day.” By the end of 2015, the Asso- ciation of American Railroads estimates that only 39 percent of locomotives will be fully equipment with PTC technology; 76 percent of wayside interface units will be installed; 67 percent of base station radios will be installed; and 34 percent of required employees will be trained. The fatal wreck of Amtrak 188


that took eight lives just outside of Philadelphia this past April brought forth renewed calls for the immediate nation-wide implementation of PTC. The original mandate for improved safety followed the fatal 2008 Metrolink commuter train crash in California that killed 25. The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was signed into law that October, putting into motion what has been called the largest privately-funded public mandate. As a result American railroads have spent nearly $5.7 billion towards the estimated $9-13 billion total


cost for PTC infrastructure installation. Yet as fast as the railroads are working, the goal of complete PTC implementation by the federally-mandated deadline of December 15, 2015, doesn’t look likely. While there are currently two bills with bipartisan support under consideration to extend the PTC deadline to as far as 2020, the tragedy of Amtrak 188 will make any kind of new compromise difficult to reach. The new technology is required on


Class I railroad mainlines where toxic hazardous materials are transported, as well as on mainlines that host intercity or commuter rail passenger service. However, the roadblocks to full implementation have not been small. The core of PTC technology relies


on radio signals and GPS to monitor train position and relative speed. This means the railroads need to install sophisticated lineside infrastructure as well as acquire new radio frequencies and hardware. The final regulations and recommendations were published by the FRA in 2010. Delays in getting approvals from the Federal Communications Commission for exclusive use of the 220 MHz band and the proposed installation of required antenna arrays have further lengthened schedules. Even once PTC is fully installed, the railroads expect that testing would add anywhere from one to two years. Some of the nation’s freight railroads


are not taking Feinberg’s remarks lightly. Rather than operating while in violation of the law and incurring heavy fines, could the network of freight trains simply grind to a halt? “It may be that the path forward really does involve the


cessation of service. We’re all looking at that,” said Frank Lonegro, vice president of CSX Transportation. Commuter railroads are facing the


same threats of penalties and fines, despite their best efforts to find funding and complete installations. In Chicago, Metra chief executive Donald Orseno predicts they won’t have full PTC implementation until at least 2019. “I don’t think it would be in the public’s best interests to fine railroads that already don’t have enough funding to implement PTC,” Orseno testified at the June 24 hearing. “We need to find another solution.” New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority does not expect to have PTC installed on its Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road lines before the end of 2018, despite receiving a $1 billion loan from the FRA to apply towards the massive project. Meanwhile, Metrolink began testing


PTC across its 500-mile system back in February 2014. According to a press release, the estimated cost for developing, installing and deploying PTC including the expansion of the communication network to support the new technology was $216.3 million. Metrolink secured full funding from local, state and federal sources to pay for the project. As this issue goes to press, it does


not appear there will be any change to the FRA’s December 31 deadline. It is unclear how the railroads will proceed after that date, and how operations will be affected across the 60,000-mile system under the jurisdiction of the PTC mandate.


—OTTO M. VONDRAK 15


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74