confuse the public." On February 24, 2014, the NTSB classified Safety Recommendation R-13-23 "Open—Unacceptable Response." On March 11, 2015, the FRA announced it had made the railroads' revised plans and implementation schedules publicly available online.
The Positive Train Control Enforcement and Implementation Act of 2015 (Public Law 114-73, section 1302, October 29, 2015) extended the deadline for PTC implementation until December 31, 2018, and contains provisions for railroads to request an additional 24-month extension. The act also prohibits the FRA from imposing monetary fines on railroads that do not meet the extended deadline until 2021. The act also requires each railroad to file a revised implementation plan and annual progress reports detailing the extent to which they are meeting the schedule set forth in those plans with the US Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT is required to make the annual progress reports available to the public within 60 days of receiving them, and in a letter dated May 5, 2016, the FRA committed to doing this.
The NTSB is concerned that the extension legislation will allow many tracks to remain unprotected by PTC for an additional 3 to 5 years and believes frequent progress reports are even more important now. Although most of the progress report elements listed in Safety Recommendation R-13-27 were included in the 2015 extension legislation, the act requires the FRA to make progress reports available annually rather than every 6 months as NTSB recommended. In its September 2015 report Additional Oversight Needed as Most Railroads Do Not Expect to Meet 2015 Implementation Deadline, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recognized the usefulness of more frequent and detailed reports. [1] The GAO recommended that the FRA be required to improve its oversight of railroads' PTC implementation by holding them accountable for continuing to make progress. The GAO also noted that the FRA is receiving private, monthly updates from railroads on their progress. On February 3, 2016, the FRA announced that it plans to begin publishing quarterly progress reports on PTC implementation later this year. The NTSB is encouraged by this announcement and looks forward to seeing it fulfilled. Accordingly, Safety Recommendation R-13-23 is now classified "Closed—Acceptable Alternate Action."
1.5.2 Two-Person Crews
In April 2014, the FRA announced its intention to issue a proposed rule establishing minimum crew size standards for main line freight and passenger rail operations. As stated by the FRA in its 2014 press release, "We believe that safety is enhanced with the use of a multiple person crew—safety dictates that you never allow a single point of failure." On March 15, 2016, the FRA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to establish minimum requirements for the size of train crews depending on the type of operation.[2] The NPRM proposes a minimum requirement of two crewmembers "for all railroad operations, with exceptions for those operations that FRA believes do not pose significant safety risks to railroad employees, the general public, and the environment by using fewer than two-person crews." The proposed rule
17
