Chemical lobby touts PTC economic benefits
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefThe Chlorine Institute (CI) isn’t yielding any ground on a CI-sponsored Positive Train Control cost-benefit study purporting to show that contrary to railroad arguments, the government-mandated installation of PTC by 2015 will provide strong economic benefits to the rail industry.
If its findings are accepted by the Federal Railroad Administration, the study would seriously undercut the railroads’ position that the federal government should help pay the multibillion-dollar bill for installing the safety system. It could also relieve shippers of hazardous materials from responsibility for indirectly funding PTC through higher rates.
CI on Tuesday sent the FRA what it called the final report of the study, which it said confirms that a regulation implementing the mandate “vastly understates the technology’s benefits to the railroad industry and public.”
Based on initial findings of the study, the institute asked the FRA in March to reissue the rule with a new cost-benefit analysis. CI said Tuesday that while it “strongly supports PTC, the faulty cost-benefit analysis in the current rule fosters a situation that could allow railroads to impose on shippers of chlorine and other toxic inhalation hazard (TIH) chemicals an unfairly large share of the costs of applying PTC technology.”
The CI study was conducted by L. E. Peabody & Associates, Inc., Alexandria, Va.
