The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced its first-ever positive train control (PTC) symposium. The symposium will be held on June 15 in Washington, D.C., and is intended to bring together FRA’s PTC experts and all 41 railroads congressionally mandated to implement PTC systems. Discussion will focus on the requirements for the Dec. 31, 2018, statutory deadline and answers to industry questions.

“The PTC Symposium is the latest effort from FRA to ensure that each and every railroad is aware of their obligations and is equipped to meet the Congressionally mandated deadline,” said FRA Administrator Ronald L. Batory.  

In addition, FRA will hold two other PTC symposia this summer on important PTC-related matters. FRA will hold a second symposium on July 16 to discuss best practices for PTC system field testing and interoperability testing. The third symposium, on August 20 will cover lessons learned and best practices for PTC Safety Plans, which are necessary for host railroads to obtain PTC System Certification from FRA and to achieve full PTC system implementation under the statutory mandate.

Full implementation of a PTC system means that an FRA-certified and interoperable PTC system — including all hardware, software, and other components — has been fully installed, has been sufficiently tested, and is in operation on all route miles required to have operations governed by a PTC system under the mandate.

To view the public version of each railroad’s Quarterly PTC Progress Report for Quarter 1 of 2018, visit each railroad’s PTC docket here.  Railroads’ PTC docket numbers are available here.