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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Positive Train Control is a safety system of
3highly advanced technologies designed to automatically stop a
4train before certain types of accidents occur; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Positive Train Control was mandated by the United
6States Congress for all passenger and Class I freight railroads
7in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Congress has mandated that Positive Train Control
9must be designed to prevent train-to-train collisions,
10derailments caused by excessive speed, unauthorized incursions
11by trains onto sections of track where maintenance activities
12are taking place, and the movement of a train through a track
13switch left in the wrong position; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Positive Train Control is a sophisticated system
15that requires an Onboard component that would activate braking
16as necessary, a Wayside component that would monitor railroad
17track signals and circuits, a Back Office component to store
18all the information related to a rail network and trains
19operating across the network, and a Communications Network to
20connect components in the locomotive, cab car, back office,
21wayside, and base station radios; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The Positive Train Control interoperability
2regulation requires that any train operating on another
3railroad's network must communicate with the host railroad's
4Positive Train Control System; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The development and implementation of Positive
6Train Control constitute an unprecedented technological
7challenge on a scale never attempted in the United States rail
8industry; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Much of the technology needed for Positive Train
10Control did not even exist when the mandate became law in 2008;
11and
 
12    WHEREAS, The Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated
13that Positive Train Control be active on all passenger and
14Class I freight rail lines by December 31, 2015; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Metra is the agency that coordinates commuter rail
16travel throughout the greater Chicagoland area; Metra must meet
17the congressional requirement of Positive Train Control on its
18lines; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Positive Train Control is an extremely expensive,
20time-consuming, and technologically-demanding system to
21implement; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Metra has been diligent in its good faith efforts
2to implement Positive Train Control by the December 31st
3deadline; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Metra operates 11 rail lines with 241 stations
5within the Chicago region, which is the nation's busiest rail
6hub; and
 
7    WHEREAS, This complex Chicago rail network has made Metra's
8good faith efforts to implement Positive Train Control more
9difficult; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Metra has also been hampered in its efforts to
11implement Positive Train Control due to other technical
12difficulties, such as radio frequency spectrum limitations
13imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, and also due
14to a lack of adequate funding support from both the federal and
15State levels; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The Federal Railroad Administration has said that
17it might force railroads that have not met the December 31st
18deadline to cease operations or it might impose daily fines on
19those railroads that are not in compliance; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Either of these actions by the Federal Railroad

 

 

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1Administration would impose extreme hardship on Metra and the
2commuters who rely on Metra's services; and
 
3    WHEREAS, No commuter rail line in the United States has yet
4fully implemented an interoperable Positive Train Control
5System; therefore, be it
 
6    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
7NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
8call on Congress to extend the deadline for passenger and Class
9I railroads to implement Positive Train Control; and be it
10further
 
11    RESOLVED, That, should Congress not extend the deadline,
12then we call on Congress to authorize the Federal Railroad
13Administration to grant individual waivers to the deadline as
14long as a rail agency shows good faith efforts to implement
15Positive Train Control as determined by the Federal Railroad
16Administration; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
18delivered to the members of the Illinois congressional
19delegation.