Photo: Buck Ennis. A Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been directed to meet next year’s deadline for installing crash-prevention technology on the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, saying any further delays would be unacceptable.
A Metro-North passenger train derailed in the Bronx in 2013, killing four people. Positive train control, a signaling, and communications system designed to avert derailments and collisions are supposed to be in place on the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road by the end of 2018. But rail officials have expressed concern about meeting that deadline.
Positive train control, a signaling and communications system designed to avert derailments and collisions, which can be fatal, is supposed to be in place on the two commuter lines by the end of 2018. But rail officials expressed concern at a board session last week about meeting that deadline.
“It will save countless lives,” Mr. Schumer, a member of the United States Democratic party, said at a news conference in Grand Central Terminal on Sunday. “Safety must come first. If people don’t think the rails are safe, they’re going to stop riding them and that’s going to be a huge problem.”
The MTA received a nearly $1 billion federal loan in 2015 for positive train control, and installation is about 54% complete, according to MTA officials. The agency is moving “aggressively” to meet the December 2018 deadline, an MTA spokesman said.
“Our customers’ and employees’ safety is our absolute top priority,” the spokesman said in an email.
If the MTA misses the 2018 deadline, it could face fines but the federal loan isn’t at risk, according to a federal official familiar with the guidelines. At last week’s board meeting, a rail official said the project has been challenged by delays with final design review, testing plans and procedures, and software development.
Congress mandated positive train control in 2008 after 25 people were killed in a California commuter train crash. The 2015 deadline then was extended by three years.
Positive train control can slow a train that is going too fast and act as a safety check on drivers who become incapacitated or distracted while operating the train.
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Mr. Schumer said the technology could have prevented the deadly 2013 Metro-North derailment in Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y., where four people were killed after a train engineer fell asleep and the train sped through a curve.
“I’m asking the MTA today, meet the deadline,” he said. “It’s not a question of money, Congress has provided them the money.”
With reports from WSJ
