Petition to Implement Positive Train Control on US Railroads (Philadelphia area)

Name: Petition to Implement Positive Train Control on US Railroads (Philadelphia area)
Brand: Petition to Implement Positive Train Control on US Railroads (Philadelphia area)
SKU: genClassifieds-440949
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In the wake of the recent Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia, PA on May 12, 2015 that resulted in eight casualties and over 200 injured; We the undersigned ask all Class 1 U.S. Railroads to comply with The Rail Safety Improvements Act of 2008 deadline of December 31, 2015. As of date, only one railroad, SEPTA is expected to be ready and have a fully functional Positive Train Control system (herein after referred to PTC for purposes of brevity) in place.

Please click link below and sign the petition:

https://www.change.org/p/class-1-railroads-federal-railroad-admistration-national-transportation-safety-board-u-s-congress-american-association-of-railroads-to-implement-positive-train-control-on-class-1-railroads-by-december-31-2015-deadline?recruiter=55642936&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg

It should be noted that PTC is not just one system, but many different systems and platforms as developed and written by different software companies and suppliers, such as: Ansaldo, Bombardier, Siemens, Alstom, Lockheed Martin, Wabtec, and Infosys, Also such systems either use the 220 MHz radio band or other bands and WIFI.

Amtrak and MBTA on the routes that run through Amtrak territory use the ACSES system.

There are many proponents of PTC systems for railroad operations, such as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), American Association of Railroads, and Congress. Even Mr. Joseph H. Boardman, President and CEO of Amtrak was in support of PTC, and recently said that had Positive Train Control been installed in this segment of the Philadelphia accident, this incident would have been avoided.

In fact, even the engineer of Train 188 Brandon Bostian was an avid railfan himself, and was quite public on railfan webs and social media as a strong advocate for PTC and safety on the U.S. railroads.

Incidentally, the day following the derailment, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed a pre-discussed measure to cut $260 million from Amtrak's $1.36 billion 2015 budget. Democrat Nita Lowey said: "While we don't know the cause of this accident, we do know that starving rail of funding will not enable safer train travel." In the same meeting, some Republicans criticized Democrats for linking the budget to the crash.

Certainly now is not the time to cut funds for Amtrak. Now is the time for Congress to step up to the plate to fund Amtrak, along with the other States where appropriate, and help the other major Class 1 railroads to put PTC in place and maintain the systems, especially for the Commuter lines that rely on public support.

So in closing, we ask for the railroad industry's compliance with The Rail Safety Improvements Act's of December 31, 2015 deadline, despite being granted an extension. There was too much time given, and everyone took advantage of that time. Well the time is coming near, let's not let another incident go by where we say, should have, could have, but didn.

Location: Pennsylvania -

Added on 21 days ago and expires on 28 December, Ad id: 440949

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