V. Payne brought up a very interesting point in another thread. Amtrak waited to request ‘spectrum’ for the radio portion until 2011 (carefully designing the system between the 2008 ‘mandate’ and the filing with the FCC to ensure the spectrum was close to the frequencies freight railroads would be using, for interworkability). At least some of the chosen frequencies were in use for a different purpose (ship to shore communications) and Amtrak filed for a waiver from some of the FCC requirements in place for the use of that spectrum. There was strong objection on a number of grounds to those waivers at the time, leading (as noted) to Amtrak not being given functional access to the radio it needed. Amtrak apparently revised its filing extensively (in part to overcome the objections to the form of its 2011 request) and the FCC granted the necessary waivers very quickly when that was done. Unfortunately not quickly enough for the system to be finished out and brought live before … this happened.
I don’t think there is actual ‘blame’ to be assigned here, although I would need to see the actual text of the Amtrak 2011 waiver request to see what the actual problems with its language were. The 2014 request was so effective a ‘fix’ that two of the firms that opposed the 2011 request were actively supporting the waivers requested. It is weirdly difficult to find the actual text of this waiver request (Jan 3, 2011). On the FCC’s Web site, hard links to the public comment request come back ‘request not found’ (but I was able to find a document with the links still there; you can download the .pdf here:
I see that Chuck and ‘Near Miss Dick’ are back doing what they do so well. Is there actually any hard evidence that lack of funding is the proximate cause of ACSES not being implemented properly?
I’d like to think that one result of this tragedy would be more Congressional funding of ACSES and PTC completion. Do I actually expect this to happen? No. Am I worried that this will become something that Congressional Republicans seize upon as being a cheap political football – and come to oppose as such? I worry yes.
I appreciate this statement that Mr. Wilner made: " Given some recent lawmaker outbursts, it would seem Congress is not always accurately briefed by rail safety experts." He also commented that many recent appointments to the FRA were not made on a basis of the actual qualification for the positions but on a political basis.
It’s a little ironic that Wilner himself appears to lack the ‘engineering’ credentials he mentions as essential to the FRA Administrator’s position. But that does not stop him from commenting extensively (and as an ‘expert’ according to Railway Age) on a number of technical matters – probably correctly.
The issue for me is not that ‘political appointees’ are being placed in policy-making positions. It is that those appointees are not receiving the necessary advice and being given the appropriate briefings to come to understand the technical issues correctly.
It doesn’t take more than a few days to be brought up to speed on what ECP can and cannot do. On the other hand, if all that exists is pro or con propaganda, it’s not surprising that FRA comes up with cockamamie ideas on what ECP actually does, or how it actually improves safety in the case of HHFTs.
Whatever happened to the idea of a ‘liberal arts education’ being in large part the study of how to get into, research, and understand a new field of study – rather than just learning what other people think, and balancing their opinions, or conducting retrospective or statistical studies and thinking that substitutes for actual critical thinking? My father said it was a mistake when four-year college education became ‘high school plus two years’ up to the beginning of junior year, and then ‘grad school minus two years’ for the remaining two. He was being sarcastic, of course, but there do seem to be an awful lot of people doing an awful lot of noncritical thinking when they f
We must be reading two different stories, or they’ve edited since you saw it.
This story is the FRA complaining that Congress isn’t acting quick enough to extend the deadline on mandatory PTC. That is precisely the thing so many pundits on this Forum have been castigating Congress for not doing; now FRA does it and they get it in the neck. Where is FRA’s take on this issue supposed to be ‘getting nasty’?
Something I find interesting is one of the stated reasons FRA supports the extension of time: it will enhance safety by allowing railroads (and Amtrak) to spend some of the money that would otherwise go to rapid (and in some respects still effectively unattainable) activation of PTC on infrastructure improvements instead.
Here is Senate bill 605, the extension bill from McConnell’s side:
Automatic Train Stop (ATS) of that era worked in conjunction with block signal systems both automatic and manual. It had nothing to do with train speed. I’d have to do some research to be sure but I believe it didn’t, of itself, initiated an emergency brake application. More likely it triggered an in-cab alert (Audio and/or visual) when a restrictive stop signal was passed.
ATS did (and does, in a few locations where it is still in use) stop the train if it passed a stop signal. Systems either worked off the ‘rapid transit style’ trip or an inductive electric current in IIATS.
In regards to the Railway Age article, the FRA has more than 900 authorized “heads”. Wrap your mind around that for just a bit. Can you legislate experience at the top? Many City positions require Professional Engineers by statue, but commonly local politicians just ignore the requirements and then there is nobody to press the case. I don’t see why Congress would do anything different should such a statue exist and they won’t enact such standards in my view anytime soon.
House Speaker Boehner seemed to blame the relative funding levels in the FY 2016 bill on not having a large enough coalition, which seems to be a side reference to lobbyist power. Quite honestly, both sides only look at power politics at the higher level positions, with a few exceptions. The people nominated for high level agencies seem to serve to only advance power politics by appealing to groups instead of policy effectiveness.
As to the PTC frequencies, Congress should have outlined an explicit procedure in the PTC legislation to condemn a certain frequency from the frequency “investors” instead of supposing that the Railroads were going to have to hunt for the frequencies.
I’d be willing to bet that the folks at the FCC were so worried how the LightSquared fiasco would turn out that they didn’t want to go anywhere near allowing someone to use spectrum for any purposes other than the one the spectrum was initially allocated for.
To develop PTC one must have radio frequencies for train/system communication. To get radio frequencies one must apply to the FCC. The FCC does far more than dole out frequencies, it now micro manages the installation of radio equipment. When you apply for new spectrum you must include information on the antenna and radio equipment, where and when it is to be installed. To do that, you must work thru the details of where to put all the radio equipment. To do that, you must go to each township/city/county/reservation/state and get a building permit. To do that, you must have a plan for each site. With thousands of sites under construction and multiple layers of government (I forgot National Park Service, State DNR, …) it has taken years to go thru the morass of permits. And once you get a permit, you must complete a construction document telling what you did for each site.
Add one more complexity: the railroad radio system is administered by the AAR adding another layer of complexity. Congress could streamline this system,but most likely they will continue to add addtional layers of “oversight” to “streamline” this bureaucracy. The FCC funding has been cut to the point they are closing all but their central office.
The idea that the media foist on the public about PTC is that the railroads just go down the the Signal Store and buy X number of PTC kits and it is a done deal.
That is so far from the realities as to be beyond laughable and well into commitable.
AMTRAK TO RESTORE SERVICE BETWEEN PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK CITY
“The safety of our passengers and crew remains our number one priority. Our infrastructure repairs have been made with the utmost care and emphasis on infrastructure integrity including complete compliance with Federal Railroad Administration directives,” said Amtrak President & CEO Joe Boardman. “Amtrak staff and crew have been working around the clock to repair the infrastructure necessary to restore service for all the passengers who travel along the Northeast Corridor.”
Effective with departures from Philadelphia at 5:53 a.m. (Train 110) and New York City at 5:30 a.m. (Train 111), all Amtrak Acela Express, Northeast Regional and other services resume. Travel in this portion of the corridor had been suspended since Tuesday evening, May 12.
Passengers are encouraged to use Amtrak.com and its smartphone mobile apps for schedules, reservations and eTicketing in addition to calling 800-USA-RAIL. QuikTrak® kiosks at Amtrak stations will also be available to print boarding documents, make reservations and purchases using credit or debit cards.
Passengers with travel plans can confirm their train’s status, change their plans or review refund information using a range of tools – including Amt
No examples, but my take is that the politicians are breathing a big sigh of relief. Any push to get a bill passed to extend the PTC deadline is now DOA. They can rest on their laurels. They are the ones who passed the bill requiring PTC. That makes them heros! (as they can spin it…)