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Bill to extend PTC deadline introduced
Federal legislation has been introduced to extend a railroad deadline that could impact agriculture.
Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition says Positive Train Control (PTC) technology allows trains to be operated remotely, and was designed to prevent collisions or derailments.
Congress established a deadline of December 31st of this year for PTC installation, and according to Steenhoek, many in the railroad industry will not be able to meet that deadline because the technology is new and untested.
PTC will be required on all freight lines carrying “toxic by inhalation” materials, such as anhydrous ammonia, a common form of fertilizer used in farming. Steenhoek tells Brownfield any kind of disruption to rail service could be devastating to agriculture.
“A lot of the decisions being made, as far as how much are you going to purchase or sell. (those decisions) aren’t made the day before the transaction. They occur months before, so it’s happening right now. It’s really important for Congress to actually provide some guidance on this. We think it makes a lot of sense for them to extend that deadline.”
Recently, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Bill Shuster introduced a bill that would extend the deadline for full PTC implementation to December 31st, 2018.
A group of 28 agricultural organizations sent a letter to the House of Representatives last month requesting a delay of the PTC deadline.
Tags: Commodities, Congress, Corn, Farm Legislation, Grains/Oilseeds, PTC
This is what happens when non operating people are in charge of agencies like FRA.
The point and click mentality togther with the over compliance crowd came pretty close to shutting down the US Rail Network