All Of Those Accidents

I'm no expert and I'm happy to be corrected by those who are, but PTC really seemed to me to be a really expensive solution to a fairly mild problem. Accidents are bad, yes, but train fatalities that would be prevented by PTC are tiny compared to cough car accidents cough which are just seen as inevitable. Maybe it's good that it's being installed, but I don't really think it's pressing.

WASHINGTON — Two months after the high-speed derailment of an Amtrak train killed eight people and injured hundreds more in Philadelphia, a Senate transportation bill headed for debate this week calls for a three-year delay of the deadline for installing a rail safety system that experts say would have almost certainly prevented the Pennsylvania accident.

Lawmakers from the Northeast and train safety experts expressed outrage over the provision, which is included in the 1,000-page legislation to finance highway and transit projects for the next three years. Several lawmakers vowed to fight the extension of the deadline to install the safety system, called positive train control, beyond December 2015.