SJR12 1R

Sponsored by:

Senator GERALD CARDINALE

District 39 (Bergen and Passaic)

Senator CHRIS A. BROWN

District 2 (Atlantic)

Co-Sponsored by:

Senator Greenstein

SYNOPSIS

Urges federal government to assist with implementing positive train control technology on NJ railways and, if necessary, to extend deadline for installing positive train control technology.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

As reported by the Senate Transportation Committee on May 10, 2018, with amendments.

A Joint Resolution urging the federal government to assist with expediting the installation of positive train control technology on New Jersey railways ¹and, if necessary, to extend the deadline for the installation of positive train control technology¹.

Whereas, The New Jersey Transit Corporation (“NJ Transit”) maintains the largest statewide public transit network in the nation, providing transportation for hundreds of thousands of people every day, linking New Jersey with New York and Pennsylvania, and delivering commuters to their jobs and their families; and

Whereas, On average, NJ Transit provides over 900,000 passenger trips per weekday, with over 300,000 of those trips ¹[being made up] consisting¹ of rail passenger trips; and

Whereas, ¹[State and federal] Federal safety¹ experts have recognized that strategic upgrades to the Northeast region railway networks, including the NJ Transit rail network, will further ensure the safety and efficiency of ¹[this system] those networks¹; ¹[at] and

Whereas, At¹ the forefront of these advancements is the comprehensive implementation of positive train control (“PTC”) technology ¹, which has been federally mandated to be fully implemented on the NJ Transit rail network by December 31, 2018¹; and

Whereas, PTC is a system of signals and sensors that, in real time, enables a train engineer to monitor the location and speed of a given train, evaluates track conditions, ensures trains travel safe distances apart, and automatically slows or stops a train that is moving too fast or failing to respond to signaling equipment; and

Whereas, This system has the capability to reduce train accidents by preventing train-to-train collisions, ensuring trains do not accidentally move into hazardous areas or places where personnel are working, and averting derailments on tracks; and

¹Whereas, Recent incidents, which include the September 29, 2016 train derailment at the Hoboken Terminal, highlight the importance of ensuring that our rail networks are safe and secure; and¹

Whereas, The challenges of implementing and testing PTC, as well as training workers on this new technology, have been taken up by rail carriers but nevertheless present a substantial effort projected to cost billions of dollars nationwide ¹and take multiple years to complete¹; and

Whereas, ¹Although¹ NJ Transit has already taken steps towards this end, ¹[although]¹ continuing recovery from Superstorm Sandy has exacerbated the expense and ¹the¹ challenges associated with ¹[implementing] the timely implementation of¹ the most effective and economical PTC system possible; and

Whereas, ¹[Recent incidents, which include the September 30, 2016 train derailment at the Hoboken Terminal, highlight the importance of ensuring that our rail networks are safe and secure; and

Whereas, Since, 2011, the Federal Railroad Administration has annually requested that Congress appropriate between $50 million and $1.4 billion to assist with implementing PTC on the nation’s railway networks; yet, only a fraction of this amount has been provided, and for several years, no funding was allocated] As of December 31, 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) noted in a letter to NJ Transit that the FRA was concerned that NJ Transit would not meet the December 31, 2018 deadline as NJ Transit has only installed required hardware on 35 of the 440 locomotives in the NJ Transit fleet and had only trained 143 of 1,100 employees on the new system¹; and

Whereas, The federal government is uniquely positioned to provide funding, technical expertise, and other support in order to ensure the full and effective implementation of the PTC technology in this State, ¹[and to this end has previously allocated funds to rail carriers in other states] and to provide an extension on the December 31, 2018 deadline for the implementation of the PTC technology, if necessary¹; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The Governor and the Legislature of the State of New Jersey urge the federal government to assist with the implementation of positive train control technology on New Jersey railways through financial, technical, and other resources ¹, and, if necessary, to provide an extension on the December 31, 2018 deadline for implementation of positive train control technology¹.

2. Copies of this joint resolution, as filed with the Secretary of State, shall be transmitted by the Clerk of the General Assembly or the Secretary of the Senate to the President of the United States, the Majority and Minority leaders of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Minority leader of the United States House of Representatives, every member of Congress elected from this State, the Secretary of the United States Department of Transportation, the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, the New Jersey Commissioner of Transportation, and the Executive Director of the New Jersey Transit Corporation.

3. This joint resolution shall take effect immediately.