The Federal Railroad Administration also urged Congress to provide more funding to help commuter railroads implement the program, known as Positive Train Control. The technology uses GPS, radios, computers and antennas to slow or stop speeding trains, prevent collisions and override human errors.
"Positive Train Control should be installed as quickly as possible," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, in a statement provided by the FRA. "This is lifesaving technology available now, and railroads should continue to aggressively work to beat the deadlines Congress has put in place."
Congress last year extended the deadline for all railroads to meet the requirements for Positive Train Control from December 2015 until December 2018, after railroads complained they would shut down if not given more time. A railroad can get up to a two-year extension under certain conditions.
Wednesday's status update — the first since the deadline was extended — outlined the progress made by railroads on PTC. Of the 38 safety plans the FRA expects to receive, it has so far gotten 7. Another 13 railroads plan to submit a PTC safety plan this year, but most submissions are not expected until 2018.
Metra has said that given its capital budget constraints, it has made PTC and improving its rolling stock its top priorities. Metra has said it will have PTC completed by 2019. (It expects to be able to meet milestones required for a deadline extension.) It will cost the agency about $400 million.
The technology is intended to prevent crashes like the Amtrak derailment in May 2015 that killed eight people in Philadelphia. A preliminary BNSF investigation of a freight crash in Texas in June that killed three crew members found that it might have been prevented by PTC.
Federal safety officials said PTC would have prevented a 2005 Metra derailment on the South Side that killed two people.
PTC legislation is an unfunded mandate. The American Public Transportation Association has estimated that commuter and passenger railroads will need to spend about $3.5 billion to implement the program, the FRA said.
FRA said it has approved more than $650 million in grants to passenger railroads for PTC since 2008.
mwisniewski@chicagotribune.com
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