Seven years ago, in the wake of a California train wreck that killed 25 people, Congress passed a law requiring railroads to use new technology to prevent such catastrophes.
Now, the deadline to install that technology — known as Positive Train Control, or PTC — is approaching at the end of this year, and railroad executives say they'll have to shut down if Congress doesn't give them more time to implement the expensive, complex system.
Officials with the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, which operates the South Shore railroad between Chicago and South Bend, announced last month that the line's trains will stop running by Jan. 1 if the deadline isn't extended. Other passenger rail systems, including Metra in the Chicago area, have sounded the same alarm.
"I don't think there will be any passenger rail systems that are fully PTC-compliant by the end of the year," Michael Noland, the NICTD's general manager, told The Tribune on Monday.
Freight railroads — especially those carrying chemicals such as chlorine or fertilizer — also are required to have Positive Train Control in place by the end of this year. The freight companies, similar to passenger rail lines, have said they will not be able to implement the new technology across their systems before the deadline.
"In general, there will either be a suspension of service or severe service delays for freight railroads if there is no PTC extension," said Ed Greenberg, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads.
Positive Train Control uses GPS and wireless signals to track a train's location and speed. The technology is capable of slowing or stopping a train if the engineer fails to act appropriately, thus preventing collisions and derailments. For example, according to federal regulators, it would have prevented the derailment of an Amtrak train that killed eight people and injured more than 200 others earlier this year in Philadelphia.
But the system is expensive.
"What we are talking about here is unprecedented technology," Greenberg said, noting that freight carriers already have spent $6 billion on Positive Train Control and plan to spend another $4 billion.