Positive Train Control (PTC) for railway safety in the United States: Policy developments and critical issues

Nationwide implementation of Positive Train Control (PTC) is underway in the United States. PTC is designed to prevent certain types of train accidents. This paper provides a review of the policy development, operational impact, cost-effectiveness, and critical issues associated with industry-wide PTC implementation. Challenges include interoperability, technological complexity, and limited implementation resources. Emerging critical issues include train operations at restricted speeds, railroad cyber-security risk, broken rail prevention in PTC territories, en route failure of PTC, grade-crossing protection, and opportunities for leveraging PTC-generated big data that require more research from academia, government, and industry.