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HRG. 115–763 IMPLEMENTATION OF POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MARCH 1, 2018 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 39–878 PDF WASHINGTON : 2020 VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:21 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\39878.TXT JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JOHN THUNE, South Dakota, Chairman ROGER WICKER, Mississippi BILL NELSON, Florida, Ranking ROY BLUNT, Missouri MARIA CANTWELL, Washington TED CRUZ, Texas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota DEB FISCHER, Nebraska RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut JERRY MORAN, Kansas BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts DEAN HELLER, Nevada TOM UDALL, New Mexico JAMES INHOFE, Oklahoma GARY PETERS, Michigan MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire CORY GARDNER, Colorado CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada TODD YOUNG, Indiana JON TESTER, Montana NICK ROSSI, Staff Director ADRIAN ARNAKIS, Deputy Staff Director JASON VAN BEEK, General Counsel KIM LIPSKY, Democratic Staff Director CHRIS DAY, Democratic Deputy Staff Director RENAE BLACK, Senior Counsel (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:21 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\39878.TXT JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on March 1, 2018 .............................................................................. 1 Statement of Senator Thune ................................................................................... 1 Prepared statement of Edward R. Hamberger, President and Chief Exec- utive Officer, Association of American Railroads ....................................... 67 Statement of Senator Nelson .................................................................................. 3 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 4 Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 47 Statement of Senator Hassan ................................................................................. 49 Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 51 Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 53 Statement of Senator Blunt .................................................................................... 54 Statement of Senator Peters ................................................................................... 56 Letter dated February 28, 2018 from Gilda Z. Jacobs .................................. 56 Statement of Senator Blumenthal .......................................................................... 59 Statement of Senator Fischer ................................................................................. 61 Statement of Senator Wicker .................................................................................. 62 Statement of Senator Cortez Masto ....................................................................... 64 WITNESSES Susan Fleming, Director, Physical Infrastructure, Government Accountability Office ..................................................................................................................... 6 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 7 Hon. Barry J. DeWeese, Assistant Inspector General, Surface Transportation Audits, U.S. Department of Transportation ...................................................... 25 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 26 David L. Mayer, Chief Safety Officer, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority ............................................................................................................... 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 34 Richard Anderson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Amtrak ................... 37 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 APPENDIX Response to written questions submitted to Susan Fleming by: Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 73 Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 74 Response to written questions submitted to Hon. Barry J. DeWeese by: Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 76 Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 76 Hon. Maria Cantwell ........................................................................................ 76 Response to written questions submitted to Richard Anderson by: Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 77 Hon. Roger F. Wicker ....................................................................................... 78 Hon. Bill Nelson ............................................................................................... 80 Hon. Maria Cantwell ........................................................................................ 81 Hon. Richard Blumenthal ................................................................................ 81 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:21 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\39878.TXT JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:21 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\39878.TXT JACKIE IMPLEMENTATION OF POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:18 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. John Thune, Chair- man of the Committee, presiding. Present: Senators Thune [presiding], Wicker, Blunt, Heller, Fischer, Gardner, Nelson, Cantwell, Klobuchar, Tester, Udall, Blumenthal, Baldwin, Markey, Peters, Hassan, and Cortez Masto. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN THUNE, U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA The CHAIRMAN. Good morning. We convene today’s hearing at a critical time for positive train control, or PTC, implementation. The victims, families, and all those affected by the overspeed derail- ment of Amtrak 501 in Washington and the collision of Amtrak 91 in South Carolina remain in our thoughts and our prayers. These accidents underscore the importance of implementing PTC quickly, safely, and successfully. And while tragic grade crossing collisions like the one involving Amtrak Special Train 923 are not generally prevented by PTC, re- ducing the number of such incidents remains another important priority. We are now about 10 months away from the December 31, 2018, statutory deadline for PTC, and recent reports suggest many rail- roads will not fully implement this safety technology by the end of the year. More alarmingly, a new report from the GAO, which I re- quested and which will be presented today, finds 7 to 19 commuter railroads are at risk for not even qualifying for a limited extension to work out software, testing, and interoperability issues. The Positive Train Control Enforcement Implementation Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama in Oc- tober 2015 extended the original deadline of December 31, 2015, amid reports that no railroad could meet the deadline, and many railroads were contemplating halting passenger rail service or ship- ments of essential supplies for agricultural production and water purification. This Committee, on a bipartisan basis, took action to avert a rail shutdown and set a realistic framework for implementation. With this realistic framework in place, railroads should be able to get the job done. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 09:21 Mar 02, 2020 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\39878.TXT JACKIE 2 The law requires railroads to implement PTC by December 31, 2018, and allows a railroad to apply for an extension of up to 24 months to ensure that PTC works as intended if, and only if, that railroad meets important milestones like full PTC hardware instal- lation, spectrum acquisition, and employee training, and meets other milestones, such as implementing PTC on a specific territory or initiating revenue service demonstration. For Class 1 freight railroads and Amtrak, the bar is higher: PTC must be implemented or in revenue service demonstration on a majority of the required territories or route miles. The law is clear: for each railroad, passenger or freight, all PTC hardware must be on board or in the ground by December 31, 2018. The law also required revised PTC implementation plans to include transparent annual metrics and provide a new authority for the FRA to enforce those plans. To date, FRA has initiated cases against 14 railroads that failed to meet hardware installation milestones or adequately report progress in a timely manner. If railroads do not