How positive train control could lengthen your NJ Transit commute

Curtis Tate | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption How the positive train control system works The Positive Train Control system (PTC) uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor trains, and automatically enforce speed limits, and emergency stops. By Frank Pompa and Ramon Padilla, USA TODAY

Though NJ Transit has almost caught up on training roughly 1,100 employees for positive train control, the collision-avoidance system has the potential to cause hiccups for riders.

The heads of Metra in Chicago and SEPTA in Philadelphia, which have made more progress, said they’ve encountered a big learning curve among locomotive engineers who are used to having wide discretion in running their trains.

Positive train control is far more strict, and it takes some time for even the most experienced employees to adjust. A wrong move could result in the train stopping in the middle of rush hour, or being unable to get a train moving at the beginning of the run.

"It is a big change," said Jeff Knueppel, the general manager of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. "It’s kind of like a video game. You have to stay under the speed."

While veteran locomotive engineers may have perfected their technique of using the throttle and brake to stop at the same spot every time at the station platform, positive train control takes that ability away.

The system strictly enforces speed limits, and trains will have longer braking distances. An engineer won't have much time to reduce the train's speed before the train brakes automatically and comes to a stop.

"That’s not the sort of thing you want to happen," Knueppel said.

Positive train control will fundamentally change how the railroad operates, he said.

"An engineer had a lot more latitude," Knueppel said. "Once you go under PTC, it’s a lot more strict."

On Metra, CEO and executive director Jim Derwinski said one sticking point arises when a train makes a turn, or goes back to its point of origin.

The engineer must make the correct inputs into the system at the opposite end of the train, and if he makes a mistake, the back office computer might not let the train proceed.

"The turn is another big opportunity for human error," Derwinski said. "Any one mistake puts guy in a further panic."

Both SEPTA and Metra plan to adjust their schedules as a result.

"We’ve had trip time increases on our lines," Knueppel said. "Some of it is the engineers getting used to the system."

Nancy Snyder, a spokeswoman for NJ Transit, said the agency is not ready to say what learning curve issues its engineers are having or whether schedule adjustments may be necessary.

"It is premature to know what the impacts of PTC will be until our system is fully certified," she said.

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Snyder said NJ Transit is working to qualify for another two years beyond the year-end deadline to complete the system. Other commuter railroads, including Metra, are seeking an extension to December 2020 from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Whereas NJ Transit only recently sought the extension, Metra recognized earlier that it would need more time.

"As we went ahead and said we’re going to take all the time, I believe it clearly helped us," Derwinski said.

Derwinski and Knueppel spoke to reporters in a conference call Tuesday about commuter railroads' progress on positive train control.

A deadly commuter train crash in southern California in 2008 spurred Congress to require the system, which automatically slows or stops trains to prevent them from taking curves too fast or blowing past red signals.

In the Metrolink crash in 2008, the commuter train's engineer ran past a stop signal and into the path of a freight train. He and 24 others were killed.

Railroads originally had until the end of 2015 to complete positive train control, but they lobbied Congress for more time when it became clear virtually none of them would meet the original deadline.

The National Transportation Safety Board has identified other fatal crashes in the past decade that the system could have avoided.

Those include the derailment of an Amtrak train in North Philadelphia in 2015 and the derailment of a Metro-North commuter train in the Bronx in 2013. In both cases, the engineers came too fast into a curve.

NJ Transit has made significant progress on positive train control in the past few months. As of March 31, only 172 employees had been trained on the system. By Aug. 3, 1,029 had completed the training.

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