Nashville’s Music City Star is a ridiculously wasteful transit project that never should have happened. Now, Democrats in Congress are insisting that it waste even more money.
In 2016, the Star attracted an average of 1,055 daily riders, far less than the 1,900 that was projected when it opened in 2009. Fares of $877,500 covered less than 15 percent of the $6-million cost of operating and maintaining the train.
Congress has directed all passenger-carrying rail lines (and many freight lines) to use positive train control, a technology that is expensive to install and expensive to maintain. The Tennessee Regional Transportation Authority, which operates the Star, applied for and received an exemption from this requirement. Now, House Democrats have challenged that exemption, noting that, “Although the Music City Star is one of the smallest commuter rail operations in the United States, the size of a railroad does not negate the potential for an accident.”
A look at the schedules for the Music City Star shows that the authority uses two different train sets to operate six trains a day in each direction. The trains are scheduled so that they meet each other only twice a day; otherwise, each train reaches a terminal before the other train leaves. So, while there is a possibility for an accident in those two meets a day, it isn’t a very large possibility. Since the top speed of the trains is about 45 miles per hour, even if there were a head-on crash, there would probably be few fatalities.
Positive train control was invented a hundred years ago by Frank Sprague, who also developed the first workable electric streetcar and the first electric rapid-transit trains. Being this old of an invention, if it were worthwhile it would have been installed by the railroads long ago. But it is expensive to install and expensive to maintain while the benefits are few.
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Positive train control wouldn’t have prevented this. In other news, note that at rush hour the 40-seat bus had only 15 passengers and the train with at least 600 seats had only 100 passengers.
As the Antiplanner has noted before, positive train control has the potential to prevent accidents that kill an average of about 10 people per year (identified in line 19, “train accidents”). Meanwhile, more than 700 people per year are killed in grade-crossing and trespasser accidents, which positive train control will do nothing to stop. It would cost a lot less money to fix grade crossings than to install positive train control, yet Congress has ordered the railroads to spend more money on something that will do less for safety.
The reason for this is that train crashes are far more spectacular than grade crossing incidents. Trains killing two trespassers or motor vehicle occupants a day get no headlines, but a big crash that kills three people gets spectacular coverage. Congress responds to the highly visible problem and ignores the invisible one, which means resources are wasted installing expensive systems on rail lines that shouldn’t be carrying passengers anyway.
Update: The FRA has published a progress report showing how far along the various railroads are in implementing positive train control. BNSF has installed it on 100 percent of its route miles and locomotives, while most other class I railroads are only about half done. Only a few commuter rail lines, including Philadelphia’s SEPTA and Los Angeles’ Metrolink, have it fully installed. Amtrak is about two-thirds done with the tracks it owns. Denver’s RTD, which claimed that it couldn’t get its crossing gates working because of interference with its positive train control, still does not have positive train control running on a single mile of its commuter-rail line.
How I’d the FRA able to grant exemotions. I can’t find anything in the 2008 act allowing for then. I agree it’s overkill given the situation. And having to implement ORC will likely be the last nail in the coffin for the old Tennessee Central line.
Nevertheless the legislation itself doesn’t speak to exemptions. Is there a legal mechanism in the legislation that FRA is using to create them?
I’m not sure why they keep handing on this issue. The FAR exemption list list which they attach shows the exemptions are limited.
I’m a bit surprised to see Cooper signing on. He’s an old school blue dog and usually pretty reasonable on spending. I would think Cooper realizes having to install PTC would be the end of The small lil TN northeastern railroad.
The other TH rep Cohen In not surprisec. He’s a crazy character that would fit in well I’m a Woody Allen flick. He fancies himself an intellectual yetnever thinks things through. He just shoot his mouthoff. I live Memphis but it’s a basket case in how it’s ran its one of the rare places in this country a memory like Cohen could get elected.