MBTA Behind In Implementing Technology That Could Have Averted New Jersey Train Accident

After the deadly commuter rail crash in New Jersey, media and government officials’ attention has turned back to the topic of “Positive Train Control,” a technology designed to stop speeding and runaway trains.

Positive Train Control, or PTC for short, is a kind of communication system between track infrastructure and the train, which can detect a train going above the given speed limit and, if necessary, stop it without human intervention.

Larger railroads have been required to adopt the technology by Congress by the end of 2015—but, after almost uniformly missing that deadline, were granted a three-year extension to the end of 2018.

But some railroads—including the MBTA's Commuter Rail—say they won’t be making that deadline, either.

The T signed a $339 million contract to install PTC only last fall.  

MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the agency intends to have a “detailed implementation plan” by 2018—but that the agency is planning on applying for, and getting, a two-year additional extension from the Federal Railroad Administration in order to have the technology implemented by 2020.

Whether the T would be granted such an exception isn’t entirely clear.

In a speech last fall following Congress’ extending the deadline for PTC implementation, Federal Railroad Administrator said that railroads should view the 2018 deadline as “the absolute latest moment for implementation.”

A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration noted that in order to even be eligible to apply for another extension to implement Positive Train Control, the MBTA (or any other railroad) would have to complete the installation of necessary hardware and train employees by 2018.

A plan submitted to federal railroad officials by the MBTA earlier this year indicated that the transit agency planned to complete a first phase by 2018, but “learn from the experience of other railroads in the Northeast … before installation begins” on a second phase of Positive Train Control implementation.

MBTA spokesman Pesaturo said in an email that since that report the MBTA has developed a new plan, in which installation will finish by the end of 2018, and which it will submit to railroad officials next month.