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10/31/2019
MTA Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) yesterday announced that select trains operating on the Far Rockaway, Long Beach, Oyster Bay and West Hempstead branches in New York have begun operating with positive train control (PTC).
As a result of the implementation, 65 route miles of LIRR's system are in PTC operation, or 21.5 percent of the PTC system, LIRR officials said in a press release.
Previously, LIRR commissioned PTC on the Port Washington and Hempstead branches, as well as on a segment of the Montauk Branch between Babylon and Patchogue, New York.
LIRR is adhering to a segment-by-segment implementation schedule that puts the railroad on the path to complete its PTC rollout across its entire network before the federal deadline of Dec. 31, 2020, LIRR officials said.
However, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has blamed its contractor, a joint venture of Siemens AG and Bombardier Transportation, for repeated delays during the project, according to a Newsday report.
Earlier this week, the MTA railroad committee approved a deal that would hold the contractor liable for expenses incurred by the MTA up to $100 million if the federal deadline is missed. The full MTA will vote on that proposal in November, according to the report.