Cramer: House Passes Positive Train Control Deadline Extension

Press Release

Congressman Kevin Cramer announced today the U.S. House of Representatives approved an extension to the Dec. 31 Positive Train Control or PTC deadline for railroads. It is included as part of H.R. 3819, the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2015, which is a short-term extension of federal highway and transit authorization until Nov.20.

The legislation gives railroads until the end of 2018 to work on the automated train conversion. They will also have the option of requesting an extra two years to work on the installation if they submit plans for doing the work by Dec. 31, 2018.

Freight railroads and Amtrak warned if the PTC deadline was not extended they would be forced, as soon as November, to begin rerouting rail traffic, potentially resulting in a massive disruption of the nation's rail service.

"The PTC extension provides assurance to railroads and consumers there will be no interruption in the shipping of goods and persons throughout the nation," said Cramer. "Without the PTC extension, food would not make it to the cities; electrical power plants would go dark because coal couldn't be shipped; and manufacturing would cease because goods couldn't be delivered to consumers. Swift passage of this bill ensures our nation's economy is not derailed."

In July, the Senate passed S.1647, the Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act or DRIVE Act, which included language to extend the PTC deadline if railroads submitted plans for installing the technology by the end of the year.

On Oct. 13, the Congressman appeared on Valley News Live's Point of View and discussed the Positive Train Control Deadline and the impact of failing to extend the deadline would have on North Dakota and the nation's economy.

Cramer cosponsored H.R. 3651, the Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act. The bill provides railroads a three-year extension to meet the Positive Train Control (PTC) implementation deadline and also empowers the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to grant two one-year extensions if railroads demonstrate they have made "good faith" efforts to meet the existing deadline of Dec. 31.

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