SEPTA: Can meet track-safety deadline, but wants more time

SEPTA has told Congress it might be able to make a New Year's Eve deadline to install a federally mandated safety system on its 280 miles of track. But it wouldn't mind a little more time.

In a Sept. 15 letter to Congress about positive train control (PTC), SEPTA sounded like a commuter dashing to make a train while hoping it is running late.

"An extension of the PTC implementation deadline would afford SEPTA the time to responsibly complete the remaining equipment installation and remedy technical issues that may arise during testing," SEPTA general manager Joseph Casey wrote to Sen. John R. Thune (R., S.D.), chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

As recently as May, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority said it would just make the Dec. 31 deadline to implement PTC, a system that can automatically brake a train if an engineer isn't obeying speed and movement signals.

The National Transportation Safety Board has said PTC would have prevented May's Amtrak crash that killed eight. Federal transportation authorities call the system a life-saver.

SEPTA's deputy general manager Jeffrey Knueppel, who will take over for Casey at the beginning of October, emphasized that SEPTA could meet the Dec. 31 deadline, but "a lot has to go right," he said Friday.

The type of PTC used by SEPTA requires equipment to be installed both in vehicles and on tracks. As of July, according to SEPTA, 142 of 290 locomotives and four of 11 line segments were equipped for PTC.

That technology matches one used by Amtrak, since the two agencies share track, but it wasn't designed to operate on an urban commuter rail with trains that make short trips and a lot of stops. It requires testing and troubleshooting to adapt it, Knueppel said.

Along with testing, SEPTA anticipates potential delays in training personnel and obtaining equipment.

There are also issues of securing radio frequencies for PTC - which operates using GPS tracking, wireless radio and computers - and ensuring compatibility with other rail operators.

The agency would prefer to allow the deadline to pass, though, rather than put untested equipment into service, Knueppel said.

"It's not like we're going to rush, turn it on and cross our fingers," he said. "That's not how we're going to to do it."

SEPTA has committed $328 million to PTC implementation. Knueppel estimated that a three-to-six-month extension would be enough to insure the system was properly installed.

SEPTA's letter to Thune was prompted by the transportation committee's request for updates from 32 commuter and freight rail services nationwide. Out of 27 responses, said Frederick Hill, spokesman for the committee, no rail organization argued against an extension.

A Sept. 9 letter to the committee from CSX, which operates freight rail on 21,000 miles of track east of the Mississippi, including in this region, was outright dire.

"CSX is in an untenable position," wrote Michael Ward, the company CEO. "On the one hand, we will be unable to comply with the RSIA (Rail Safety Improvement Act) on January 1, yet continuing operations to satisfy our common carrier obligation would mean CSX would be violating that law."

The PTC deadline applies to 40 rail systems nationwide. Of those, only SEPTA and Metrolink, Los Angeles commuter system, might be able to meet the deadline, according to the Federal Railroad Authority.

Amtrak's Northeast Corridor also may be able to meet the deadline, a spokesman for that agency said.

The nation's rail systems' failure to install PTC is making headlines as the deadline looms. The Government Accountability Office issues a report this week stating the due date would not be met, a conclusion that mirrors one it came to in 2013. During confirmation hearings this week, Sarah Feinberg, nominated to head the Federal Railroad Authority, fielded questions about PTC implementation in which she said her agency had no choice but to enforce the deadline. Only Congress has the power to extend it.

The FRA has a schedule of fines for noncompliance, but perhaps more paralyzing for the nation's rail system would be the liability issues stemming from rail companies operating in noncompliance with the law. Systems that are in compliance but are hosts to freight rails, such as SEPTA, could bar other trains not in compliance from using their lines.

"Failure to extend this legal deadline would create significant hardships for customers and passengers who rely on railroads," Thune said in a statement earlier this week.

A bill that would allow rail systems to apply for extensions to the Transportation Secretary passed the Senate but must be addressed by the House.

"I think Congress very much recognizes that in order to avoid disruptions in the nation's transportation system they're going to have to move on an extension well before Dec. 31, 2015," Hill said.

jlaughlin@phillynews.com

215-854-5487 @jasmlaughlin