The system, called Positive Train Control, uses radio towers and on-board GPS units to track the position, speed and length of each train. If a train is speeding into a curve or through a work zone, the system alerts the train operator, and if the train operator fails to hit the brakes, the system slows the train or stops it automatically.
The systems are designed to remove human errors that cause train-to-train collisions, speeding-related derailments and other types of crashes but won't stop a train from hitting a person who crosses the tracks or a car that ignores a crossing gate.
Congress mandated the implementation of the new systems with the passage of the U.S. Safety Improvement Act of 2008 after a commuter train operator in Los Angeles ran a track signal light and struck a freight train, killing 25 people. Initially, the law was scheduled to be implemented by 2015, but the deadline was subsequently extended to 2018 to allow railroads more time to comply.
Parsons Transportation Group, which has a contract with Caltrain to build the safety system, filed a lawsuit against Caltrain on Feb. 22, alleging it was not responsible for the delays.
Railroad operators had to contend with significant obstacles installing the relatively new and largely untested new technology, said Billy Terry, the senior legislative representative for the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). Many railroad companies struggled to secure their own radio spectrum for the systems, he said, as well as find the funding for the multi-million dollar projects.
"The industry collectively came to the conclusion that meeting the 2015 deadline was simply not feasible from a technology point of view, from a financial point of view and from a research and development point of view," Terry said.
So far, fewer than 20 percent of the railroad companies tasked with implementing the systems have completed installation, according to APTA. Caltrain, by comparison, has completed construction of the system and only needs to go through the testing process, said Seamus Murphy, a spokesperson for the agency.
Caltrain approved the $138 million contract with Parsons in 2011 and issued an order to proceed with construction in 2012 for the $231 million project. Initially, the contract called for the testing to be completed by May 2016, but Caltrain officials said "continued delays" and an "utter lack of progress" pushed the actual end date further and further out. As of July, Parsons had installed the requisite equipment on the trains, at Caltrain's dispatch facilities and along the tracks, as well as the fiber-optic cables needed to operate the new communications system, and was supposed to start testing in October.
Caltrain won't comment on what went wrong from there, citing pending litigation. But, according to the lawsuit filed by Parsons, factors beyond the company's control contributed to the delays. Caltrain's governing board changed some requirements in the contract, the agency provided inaccurate data to Parsons about its systems and didn't approve the design documents in a timely manner, lawyers for Parsons said in the suit. There was also interference from the Federal Railroad Administration and third parties that were supposed to provide information to Parsons, the suit said.
The company and Caltrain agreed to a revised work plan in May 2016, but Parsons said more changes to the contract, new federal standards and problems with Caltrain's preexisting communications systems caused yet more delays. Parsons claims Caltrain actually owes it $35 million.
For its part, Caltrain is working to secure another contractor to complete the testing work while it works to recoup what it says are damages it sustained through Parsons' inability to perform.
The contract complications come at a time when Caltrain is facing uncertainty on another large project: electrification of its system. Earlier this month, the Federal Transit Administration told Caltrain it was withholding a $647 million grant for the agency's electrification project until the Trump administration develops its budget for the year. Caltrain officials on Monday announced it had secured extensions for its contracts, which had already been approved, pending certification of funding.
©2017 East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
