GAO Reports – Week of 1-6-24 – Cost of Positive Train Control

This week the Government Accountability Office published a report on “GAO Reports – Week of 1-6-24 – Cost of Positive Train Control”. This report was required by §22409 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (PL 117-58, 135 STAT. 740). In collecting information for this report from the commuter railroads, GAO found that most did not accurately breakout the operations and maintenance (O&M) costs for the positive train control systems that they are required to operate.

When Congress mandated PTC systems for all passenger railroads in 2008, everyone knew that it would be a costly system to implement. What Congress was looking for in this report, now that all passenger railroads have PTC systems in place, is what it was going to cost to maintain and run these systems. Unfortunately, it appears that the railroads have had little interest in tracking those costs.

What is missing, however, is what costs the freight railroads are having to keep up their PTC systems on lines transited by the most dangerous chemicals. This was not included in this report for the simple reason that Congress did not ask for it.