Chicago’s Metra commuter rail agency says it is on track to meet a crucial December federal deadline for implementation of the safety system known as positive train control (PTC). But it’s an expensive proposition, which is forcing deferral of other costly system improvements.
PTC is a high tech, GPS-based system, designed to provide electronic communication between trains---with a goal of preventing any two trains from being in the same spot on earth at the same time. The PTC system is designed to automatically stop any train which ignores switches, signals, or speed limits, hopefully preventing potentially catastrophic collisions.
Metra Executive Director James Derwinski says that last month, the agency met all of its crucial milestones, regarding installation of equipment, radio spectrum, and training.
“This has been a long, challenging, and expensive process,” Derwinski said. “We are now seeing the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.”
But for Metra, that’s proving to be a costly tunnel. The safety system will end up being a $400 million proposition in Chicago, and its estimated the agency will spend another $15 to $20 million per year, just to operate it.
And after mandating the system, how much money did the federal government contribute?
Almost none.
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Derwinski told NBC 5 Wednesday the federal contribution for Chicago has been about $43 million dollars. And the remainder of the bills have been paid from what should have been the railroad’s yearly operating funds. Because of that, Metra has had to forego improvements in locomotives, coach cars, and station enhancements.
Indeed, last week, Metra announced it was purchasing three used locomotives, because it can’t afford to buy new ones.
“Ideally, Metra would have sufficient funding to replace older locomotives with new ones on a regular basis,” Derwinski said in a release. “However, Metra has long been underfunded, forcing us to work with the funding we have available.”
Nationally, the American Public Transportation Association says that 68 percent of the nation’s 28 commuter railroads are in PTC operation, in Revenue Service Demonstration, or are awaiting approval to begin testing. On those systems, 96 percent of wayside equipment has now been installed, along with 94 percent of the computers and other sophisticated systems installed on the locomotives themselves.
All have the same daunting funding challenges. Paul Skoutelas, president of the American Public Transportation Association, said the nation’s railroads currently face at least a $90 billion backlog in what are known as “state of good repair” projects.
Metra says it is on schedule to complete full implementation of PTC by 2020, but with 13 railroads, Chicago is the most complex rail terminal in the United States. Trains on the eleven Metra lines must communicate not only with each other, but hundreds of freight and Amtrak trains which crisscross the city each day. All are owned by different companies, many operate on different systems, but all must talk to each other.
And it has to have pinpoint accuracy. Metra’s trains must be able to navigate complicated routes, in an out of hundreds of stations, including Union Station and Ogilvie where dozens of tracks converge
“We’re using military-grade GPS,” Derwinski said. “It’s down to half a meter!”
