Metro-North Hudson Line Finally Has Long-Awaited Safety Upgrade

Metro-North has finally completed an important safety upgrade five years after it was supposed to.

AMNY is reporting that positive train control is now live on the Harlem and Hudson Lines. The safety technology was created to avoid operator error, which can lead to derailments and collisions. Congress has mandated that Metro-North needs to have it completely installed by the end of the year.

This technology is hardly new. Positive train control was first conceived in the 1970s and by 1990 it was uniformity agreed that the system was necessary on all commuter rails to avoid major accidents. In 2008 Congress finally passed legislation that the technology needed to be installed by 2015. That date was later changed to 2018, but by early last year, Metro-North was still far behind, with only 65 percent of the upgrades completed.

It's widely believed that positive train control could have prevented the deadly 2013 Metro-North Crash. Five years later Senator Chuck Schumer said that concern over Metro North's lack of progress with positive train control was "alarming." The Senator helped Metro-North secure a low-cost loan of $1 billion to get the system up and running on time.

Although it is way behind schedule, the new technology is now turned on for Hudson Valley passengers. Overall, Metro-North says that just under 75% of their tracks are now fully compliant with the safety standard.

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