GAO: Interoperability issues a concern for PTC deployment

Amtrak, commuter and freight railroads continue to make progress on positive train control (PTC) implementation, but significant work remains to achieve interoperability among the railroads' individual PTC systems, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

As of March 31, 2019, 11 of the 31 host railroads that must have interoperable PTC systems reported that they had achieved interoperability with at least one of their tenant railroads. Collectively, 38 of the 227 unique host-tenant relationships that require interoperability have been completed (17 percent), according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the report stated.

Most railroads reported to the GAO that vendor and software issues were "major" or "moderate" challenges for PTC implementation. More than half of the railroads also reported that interoperability was a major or moderate challenge, and can be complicated by software issues and coordinating host and tenant schedules, among other issues.

For example, one railroad reported that certain software functionality still had to be developed, tested and implemented to address reliability issues and facilitate interoperability.

The GAO recommended that the FRA take steps to communicate information to railroads and to use a risk-based approach to prioritize agency resources and workload. The FRA concurred with the GAO's recommendations, the report stated.

Forty-two railroads are required by the federal mandate to implement PTC. The deadline to do so is Dec. 31, 2020. Last week, FRA Administrator Ronald Batory testified before a Senate panel on the status of PTC implementation.