This is the direct link to the NS Corp service alert about Poisonous-Inhalation-Hazard chemicals and the PTC deadline on December 31st, 2015.
By complying with the law, I wonder how long it will take for the law to be changed.
When Congress figures out how devastating this issue is to the economy, especially a year away from a presidential election, there will be plenty of support for a delay of PTC from both parties.
John Timm
Considering that the GOP can’t even figure out who their leader will be, that may be a very tall order.
No Amtrak and Metra trains as well. Should be fun. “Metra,” is that in the DC area?
Metra runs in Chicago.
VRE uses NS trackage from AF interlocking to Manassas. CSX from Union Station to AF. CSX will not let VRE or MARC (the Maryland commuter agency) operate either.
Have CSX, or any other of the major freight carriers issued cessation of service notices similar to the NS cessation notice? As I understand it Amtrak plans to meet the PTC requirements on the Northeast Corridor by December 31.
Balt, does CSX now own the track from Union Station to the Virginia interlocking? I had understood that this is Amtrak’s property. I knew that NS (and Amtrak) have trackage rights north from AF Tower.
By the way, have the old catenary supports south of Virginia been removed in conjunction with the refurbishing of CSX’s tunnel (they were still there this past April when I went north from Charlotte)?
CSX published a notice to their employees and customers similar to NS’s.
Union Station to Virginia is a battle ground - whenever there is trouble each side says it’s the other’s problem even though
BNSF seems to be taking more of a wait-n-see approach
Remember what I said a few weeks back about Atlas getting ready to shrug?
Looks like it’s starting to happen.
It looks as if the issue of installing PTC by the end of 2015 might be moot. The House is working on a bill to extend deadline for installing of PTC until the end of 2018
I understand that the House has passed a six year highway bill that includes a three year PTC extension which now must go to a conference committee it iron out differences between it and a Senate bill. It is also reported that Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) has vowed to block any bill that has PTC extension in it.
She is one hardheaded, ignorant, stupid woman!
The same could be said for a certain Senator from Texas.
They are serious about their plans from the way this sounds. Glad I rode #611 this summer, don’t know what will happen next year. I did hear that BNSF also plans to shut down if deadline not extended. Congress needs to pull together for the good of the country and forget all this bi-partisan nonsense. They forget they were elected by us to work for us, not throw mud on each other and refuse to work together on anything.
The news shows that Norfolk Southern has a large influence. They got a three year extension.
I told you so.
The news that Congress has passed and the President has signed the PTC extension proves me right: the federal government will not allow the railroads to shut down and disrupt the economy (the heck with passengers; no one cares about us). I predicted this some weeks or months ago when this issue surfaced here in the forum. There was never any reason to get one’s undies in a knot on this point, as many here have.
Andrew Falconer has written that this shows NS “has a large influence,” but a very recent article in the NY Times demonstrated that it’s not only NS that’s responsible for the extension: it’s the entire railroad industry itself. Indeed, the article pointed out that American railroads have one of the largest, richest groups of lobbyists in Washington. They have contributed huge sums of money to various Congressmen and committee chairmen (I’m looking at you Mr. Shuster) and almost invariably get their way when they want, or in this case don’t want, something important to them. This article also pointed out the railroad industry’s years-long foot-dragging on this issue.
The age of Vanderbilt, Hill, Harriman, et al has simply been superceeded by the faceless corporations and their boards of directors which today employ legions of lobbyists to get their way no matter what. When it comes to PTC I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I’m dismayed by what we used to call bribes, today termed campaign contributions, quickly and effectively buying the votes of Congres
With this, I conclude that the PTC mandate is meaningless. Now there is all the time in the world and the technology will keep changing. The flash of a decisive mandate will be replaced by the steady drip of incremental safety regulations, each resisted, but unstoppable as a whole. In the end, this was a failure of Congress to write a check that they couldn’t cash.