[californiadisasters] Deadline Extension Sought For System to Avoid Train Crashes

Metrolink, which is racing to install such a system in the wake of the deadly Chatsworth crash, blasts the national transit coalition's request. Feinstein and the NTSB also object.

By Rich Connell, Los Angeles Times

March 17, 2011

The nation's leading coalition of local transit agencies wants Congress to delay a key rail safety reform prompted by the deadly Metrolink commuter disaster three years ago in Chatsworth.

Citing funding and technical challenges, the influential American Public Transportation Assn. is asking for a three-year extension on a 2015 deadline to roll out a high-tech collision avoidance system for the nation's major passenger railroads.

The request, expected to be presented Thursday at a Washington hearing, has drawn fire from California's senior U.S. senator and Southern California's Metrolink rail system, which is racing to complete the nation's first so-called positive train control system, or PTC, by the end of next year.

"I am extremely disappointed that some in the rail industry would try to delay a life-saving measure — putting cost ahead of the safety of passengers," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). "They know the law; they know how to avoid collisions and save lives, but once again are trying to avoid responsibility."

Modern PTC systems use positioning data from satellites, computers and radio signals to keep track of trains' speed and location, and take over controls when necessary to avoid collisions and derailments.

After the Chatsworth crash, Feinstein authored a landmark mandate to deploy PTC systems nationwide. Federal investigators found that the 2008 head-on crash with a Union Pacific freight train occurred after a Metrolink engineer, distracted by text messaging, ran a red light. It was one of the costliest and deadliest train accidents in recent U.S. history, killing 25 and injuring more than 130. PTC could have prevented the collision, investigators found.

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View entire article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rail-safety-20110317,0,2952499.story

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