NJ Transit completes end of 2018 requirements for PTC installation

New Jersey Transit has completed 100 percent of the criteria required by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for the installation of Positive Train Control (PTC) by the end of the year statutory deadline. 

NJ Transit has completed the installation of 326 miles of wayside equipment, including radios, transponders and poles, completed installation of all equipment on locomotives and cab control cars, initiated PTC testing and has made progress training its employees. NJ Transit says these markers, along with the acquisition of the needed spectrum for the system, will allow it to apply for an alternative schedule to have PTC fully operational by the end of 2020.

“It’s a new day at NJ Transit,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “We promised the people of New Jersey that we would start making it right at NJ Transit and this achievement shows we are doing just that. Make no mistake. There’s still a lot of work left to do on PTC, but this is a major step forward as we continue to rebuild our mass transit system.”

NJ Transit's progress toward PTC implementation had been lagging behind peer commuter rail agencies. Despite the statistics appearing to show NJ Transit behind, the agency posted significant increases in quarterly progress reports. For example, FRA progress reports from Quarter 3 2017 show NJ Transit only had seven percent of the required hardware, both wayside and onboard, installed. One year later in FRA progress reports from Quarter 3 2018, it had reached 66 percent of required hardware installation. However, the improvements were not enough to keep NJ Transit from being one of five railroads labeled "at risk" of missing the Dec. 31, 2018 statutory deadline by the FRA following Quarter 3 progress reports on the technology. 

While accolades were showered on Gov. Murphy for pushing the agency to meet the statutory deadline, NJ Transit leadership credits the people who were performing the work.

“Accomplishing this goal would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment of the men and women at NJ Transit assigned to this project, along with our contractors, who completed four years of work in less than a year,” said NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett. “As our customers are at the heart of what we do, I also want to thank them for their patience and understanding in helping us reach this milestone. This achievement is certainly something I’m proud of, but we still have another four years’ worth of work to accomplish in the next two years. While there is still much work to be done, I’m confident that our team will have PTC fully operational by December 31, 2020.”

NJ Transit's roadmap to complete PTC implementation throughout the course of 2019 and 2020 includes the continued installation of PTC equipment as it continues to restore the ranks of locomotive engineers. PTC equipment will be installed on the remaining 158 locomotives and cab cars bringing the total number of vehicle installations to 440 by December 31, 2020. NJ Transit will complete training of the remaining 985 employees bringing its total number of PTC trained employees to 2,730. Field testing will continue to demonstrate system reliability before advancing PTC testing to revenue service demonstration, interoperability and tenant railroad testing and full FRA PTC certification. NJ Transit sayd full PTC system implementation will occur by December 31, 2020.