Congress gave the nation’s railroads three more years, and possibly up to five, to install a mandated safety system that would automatically slow trains running at unsafe speeds, and which safety experts say could have prevented May’s fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia.
Positive train control, which can remoted brake speeding trains, was supposed to be installed on major passenger and freight lines by the end of 2015, but only a few commuter railroads and no freight lines expected to meet the deadline.