More Wednesday morning rail news:
— Residents and government officials in the Chicago suburb of Flossmoor, Ill., are balking at proposed changes to the Metra Electric District schedule spurred by positive train control implementation, the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle reports. The schedule will change the number of stops on some peak-period trains; among those saying they will be negatively affected are students and employees of the University of Chicago and students attending Mount Carmel High School. Metra continues to accept comment on the proposed schedule here and has changed schedules elsewhere based on those comments. PTC-related changes to the BNSF line schedule were adjusted to allow for students who used the train to reach a private high school in Oak Park, Ill. [see “Metra begins service with new BNSF schedule,” Trains News Wire, June 11, 2018].
— Four teens have been arrested after a former Seaboard Air Line station in Delray Beach, Fla., was destroyed by fire on Tuesday. The four high school students, ages 15 to 17, face arson charges after the station, built in 1927 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the Palm Beach Post reports. The building, purchased by the city in 2005 for possible renovation, was vacant but was being used to store lawn maintenance equipment. One firefighter was injured in fighting the blaze, reported about 10:15 a.m.
— An Amtrak software fix needed for positive train control interoperability with Long Island Rail Road trains is now not expected until July 2021, two months later than a previous estimate, Newsday reports. LIRR president Phillip Eng says his railroad plans meetings with Amtrak to try to move up that date, but says his railroad is still on schedule to meet the Dec. 31, 2020 deadline for PTC implementation.
How can the feds mandate something that doesn’t yet exist?
I’m presuming there is no off the shelf solution for this complicated interlocking of LIRR and Amtrak.
A whole lot of what does not get accomplished in our society today, is because of people making decisions at the altar of CYA.
PTC is meant to be an improvement (in safety?). It does not appear that way when it reduces the number of trains which can be accomodated in a given amount of time. And for every system there is always a fool who will accidentally find, without realizing it, a way to beat any system, including PTC. I says these things while also acknowledging I am not an expert in transportation safety.
PTC is causing the turnaround times for trains that reach EOL to grow. This means Metra has to retime express trains. PTC mandates a minimum before the train can be reset to go back to where it came.
Eric, that’s easy. It’s called CYA and look good for the press.