MTA to Improve Safety on Metro North with $967.1 Million Federal Loan

By ALFRED BRANCH and LANNING TALIAFERRO (Patch Staff)

In the past two years Metro-North has seen eroded commuter confidence in the face of derailments and deaths, excessive and relentless delays, constant electrical problems, a sharply-criticized communication structure and a culture that detractors said valued performance over safety.

Over the past 20 months, 14 people have been killed while riding the Metro-North rails and more than 100 people have been injured in Connecticut and New York.

These grim safety statistics helped New York land a $967.1 million loan from the FRA “for the improvement of the safety of the signal systems used by the MTA’s two commuter railroads, the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in April.

Officials said the money will be used to install “positive train control,” which is technology that helps to remove human error that can lead to accidents.

“This loan is a dramatic investment in the MTA - one that will make trains safer for all riders on Metro-North and the LIRR,” said Cuomo in a statement. “With this infusion of funding, crews will be getting to work on individual cars and along hundreds of miles of track to install state of the art technology that can save lives. This loan could not have been possible without the hard work and support of DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx and Acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg, and I thank them on behalf of all MTA commuter rail customers for helping us make this important advancement possible.”

According to the MTA, positive train control is a “technology that allows computerized systems to automatically control certain aspects of train movement. It is intended to prevent train-to-train collisions, trains accidentally traveling into areas where track workers are working, or derailments caused by excessive train speed or the movement of a train through an improperly aligned switch. The technology can address situations like the Spuyten Duyvil derailment in the Bronx, where a train was going faster than its maximum allowable speed. Congress mandated the installation of positive train control in 2008 for all commuter railroads in the U.S.”

SEE: UPDATE: Victims of Deadly Train Wreck were from Cold Spring, Montrose, Newburgh, Queens

Both Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road are in the process of implementing the technology, officials said, which includes the installation of on-board components for 1,455 rail cars and transponders alongside 588 route miles of track. The MTA awarded a contract to a joint venture of Bombardier Transportation and Siemens Rail Automation in 2013 “to act as a systems integrator that will provide the design, furnish equipment and ensure that the system functions as intended.”

Of the FRA loan, Congressman Eliot Engel said: “MTA services are an indispensable part of my constituents’ everyday lives. Thousands of commuters rely on the MTA daily to travel to work, home or school. They expect – and should receive – a safe train ride. Implementing positive train control is a critical step making this expectation a reality. The tragedies that occurred at Spuyten Duyvil in 2013 and in Westchester earlier this year may have been avoided if this life-saving technology had been in place. While we cannot assuage the pain and grief that these accidents have caused, we can make every effort to create a better railroad moving forward. I applaud the DOT and the Federal Railroad Administration for recognizing the need for this technology in the MTA system, and am very pleased that all rail travelers can experience a safer ride.”

Congresswoman Nita Lowey added, “I’m pleased that MTA’s application to install positive train control technology has been approved by the Federal Railroad Administration. Securing this funding would help ensure that disastrous events like the December 2013 Metro North accident never happen again. Over the last year, I have worked tirelessly to highlight the need for additional resources to help commuter railroads install PTC, and I will continue to work with federal and state officials to ensure that MTA gets the resources it needs to keep its riders safe.”

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