Following what was called a minor Metro-North commuter train derailment in Westchester County last week, two New York congressional representatives have written to the head of the National Transportation Safety Board.
Democrats Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey penned a letter to acting NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt urging him to do everything in his power to push for the swift implementation of positive train control, or PTC, technology. They used the derailment on the New Haven line in Rye in Westchester County May 18 as an example of the need to implement PTC expeditiously, and cited other train incidents in their regions in recent years that resulted in serious injuries and fatalities. A Metro-North spokesman says the railroad is on target to meet a federal deadline for PTC implementation of December 2018.
