Metra, Other Agencies May Be Fined For Missing Safety System Deadline
From the Chicago Tribune
Metra will likely face fines or other penalties for failing to meet a federally mandated deadline for installation of a high-tech safety system at the end of the year, the nation's top railroad regulator said Wednesday.
Metra won't be alone, however. Virtually every other commuter and freight railroad in the country will be unable to install the hugely expensive and complicated system, known as positive train control, by Dec. 31, officials said at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.
PTC is "the single most important safety development in a century," said Sarah Feinberg, acting chief of the Federal Railroad Administration. "The FRA will enforce the deadline as Congress has mandated."
Railroads that fail to meet the deadline could face fines of up to $25,000 per day.
But fining the railroads for missing the deadline makes no sense, Metra Executive Director Don Orseno testified, because that money would come from the same pot of funding Metra needs to pay for PTC and other safety programs, and infrastructure like new bridges.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Tribune
Metra will likely face fines or other penalties for failing to meet a federally mandated deadline for installation of a high-tech safety system at the end of the year, the nation's top railroad regulator said Wednesday.
Metra won't be alone, however. Virtually every other commuter and freight railroad in the country will be unable to install the hugely expensive and complicated system, known as positive train control, by Dec. 31, officials said at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.
PTC is "the single most important safety development in a century," said Sarah Feinberg, acting chief of the Federal Railroad Administration. "The FRA will enforce the deadline as Congress has mandated."
Railroads that fail to meet the deadline could face fines of up to $25,000 per day.
But fining the railroads for missing the deadline makes no sense, Metra Executive Director Don Orseno testified, because that money would come from the same pot of funding Metra needs to pay for PTC and other safety programs, and infrastructure like new bridges.
Read more in our daily News Update...