The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 is a United States federal law, enacted by

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

to improve

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

safety. Among its provisions, the most notable was the mandate requiring positive train control (PTC) technology to be installed on most of the US railroad network by 2015. This was spurred by the

2008 Chatsworth train collision The 2008 Chatsworth train collision occurred at 4:22:23 p.m. PDT (23:22:23 UTC) on September 12, 2008, when a Union Pacific freight train and a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on in the Chatsworth neighborhood of Los Angeles, ...

the month prior to passage of the act. After two delays, the technology was operational on all required railroads by the end of 2020.

Background

Starting in 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) counted PTC among its "Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements."National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Washington, DC (2010)
"Modifications to NTSB Most Wanted List; List of Transportation Safety Improvements after September 1990."
/ref> At the time, the vast majority of rail lines relied on the human crew for complying with all safety rules, and a significant fraction of accidents were attributable to human error. In September 2008, Congress considered a new rail safety law that set a deadline of 2015 for implementation of PTC technology across most of the U.S. rail network. The bill, ushered through the legislative process by the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, was developed in response to the

collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great fo ...

of a Metrolink passenger train and a Union Pacific

freight train Rail freight transport is the use of rail transport, railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of Railroad car#Freight cars, freight cars (US) or goods wagon ...

September 12, 2008, in California, which resulted in the deaths of 25 and injuries to more than 135 passengers. As the bill neared final passage by Congress, the Association of American Railroads (AAR) issued a statement in support of the bill. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

signed the 315-page Rail Safety Improvement Act into law on October 16, 2008.

Provisions of the law

Among its provisions, the law provides funding to help pay for the development of PTC technology, limits the number of hours freight rail crews can work each month, and requires the Department of Transportation to determine work hour limits for passenger train crews.

Implementation

To implement the law, the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail sa ...

(FRA) published final regulations for PTC systems on January 15, 2010. In December 2010, the U.S.

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

(GAO) reported that

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...

and the major

Class I railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

s had taken steps to install PTC systems under the law, but that the work may not be complete by the 2015 deadline. The railroads and their suppliers were continuing to develop software to test various system components, which could delay equipment installation. GAO also suggested that publicly funded commuter railroads will have difficulty in obtaining funds to pay for their system components. In October 2015, Congress passed a bill extending the compliance deadline by three years, to December 31, 2018. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

signed the bill on October 29, 2015. Only four railroads met the December 2018 deadline; the other 37 got extensions to December 2020, which was allowed under the law for railroads that demonstrated implementation progress. On December 29, 2020, it was reported that the safeguards had been installed on all required railroads, two days ahead of the deadline.

References

{{Reflist Railway safety United States railroad regulation United States federal transportation legislation Acts of the 110th United States Congress 2008 in rail transport

Background

Provisions of the law

Implementation

See also

References