Review - FRA Publishes PTC Systems Final Rule

 Today the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a final rule in the Federal Register (86 FR 40154-40182) for “Positive Train Control Systems”. This regulation revises the regulations governing changes to positive train control (PTC) systems and reporting on PTC system performance. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rule was published last December.

The preamble includes a brief discussion about the cybersecurity provisions of the existing PTC regulations and the rule makes one control system software related revision.

This final rule becomes effective on August 26^th, 2021.

For a more detailed look at the changes in the Final Rule and links to the various discussions, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/fra-publishes-ptc-systems-final-rule - subscription required.