Senate bill would ease impact of PTC mandate
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefSen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced legislation Feb. 8 that, while maintaining the Positive Train Control mandate, would ease its financial impact on the railroads.
The bill, co-sponsored by Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would substantially reduce the number of route-miles railroads are required to equip with PTC.
Under the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration ordered the installation of PTC on an estimated 73,000 miles of road that handle passenger trains and/or freight cars containing toxic inhalation hazard chemicals. Deadline: Dec. 31, 2015.
“Traffic patterns for shipping toxic chemicals are changing,” said Hutchison (pictured at left). “This means that at least 10,000 route-miles used to move chemicals in 2008 are no longer expected to transport these products in 2015.”
She characterized the unfunded PTC mandate as “an example of regulatory excess that is costing America’s businesses billions of dollars with no obvious benefits. We must rein in the regulatory bureaucracy in order to unleash innovation and investment and spur job growth. This common-sense bill would reduce compliance costs without impacting the safety or security of our country’s rail lines.”
