The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has approved New Jersey Transit's submission for a Positive Train Control (PTC) alternative schedule. NJ Transit had met the required criteria by the end of 2018 to qualify for the alternative schedule, which gives the transit agency to Dec. 31, 2020 to implement PTC.
“This approval recognizes all of the hard work that so many of our employees and contractors performed over the course of 2018,” said NJ Transit Executive Director Kevin Corbett. “We had to accomplish four years’ worth of work in just 10 months and couldn’t have been successful without the support and guidance from our partners at the FRA. There is still much work to be done before December 2020 and we’re not slowing down until PTC is fully implemented.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said, "This accomplishment is the result of a herculean effort by NJ Transit leadership and staff to turn around a once languishing PTC program...There are few one-year achievements this administration is prouder of because getting PTC done, and done right, is the driving force behind the rest of our efforts to fully restore NJ Transit into a transportation system that New Jersey residents deserve.”
In addition to receiving FRA's approval, NJ Transit said it would resume full service of the Atlantic City Rail Line (ACRL) and the Princeton Branch (Dinky) Friday, May 24.
NJ Transit planned to temporarily suspend ACRL service in the fall to accelerate its PTC work, but the issue grew as the agency faced shortages of locomotive engineers and equipment availability.
“We understand just how much our customers depend on the service we provide on these two rail lines. The decision to temporarily suspend service on the ACRL and the Princeton Dinky was not made lightly, but we’ve remained committed to restoring service as soon as we possibly could,” said Corbett. “Thank you to all of our customers for their patience, which allowed us to accelerate the installation of Positive Train Control and meet the required year end federal milestones. We look forward to, once again, providing our ACRL and Princeton Dinky customers a predictable and reliable rail service they deserve.”
