U.S. Regulatory Requirements for Positive Train Control Systems

Background

Rail operations in the U.S. are predominately freight, with comparatively limited passenger/commuter services. The U.S. rail system is the largest integrated freight and passenger system in the world, operating over 169,000 miles of track (AAR, 2010; IUC 2010). The 563 freight railroads employ almost 170,000 people and operate over 1.2 million freight cars. The 563 freight railroads are dominated by seven “Class 1”¹ railroads; the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSF), CSX, Kansas City Southern (KCS), Norfolk Southern (NS) Canadian Pacific (CP - Soo Line), Canadian National (CN- Grand Trunk) and Union Pacific (UP). The CP (Soo Line) and CN (Grand Trunk) represent the U.S. operations of the CP and CN Railroads respectively.

The Class 1 freight railroads play a significant role in the U.S. economy. They moved over 1,820 billion ton miles of freight, or 42% of all US freight traffic by revenue mile (DOT, 2007). In contrast, the 27 members of the European Union only moved 447 billion tonne-kilometers, 18.1% of all freight traffic by tone-kilometer (EU, 2010). In terms of operating revenue, the 2009 aggregate revenues of the BNSF, UP, CSX, and NS alone were over $44 billion dollars. If these numbers are viewed as a country, then their combined revenues would rank them as the 72^st largest country in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP). (IMF, 2010)