Connecticut lawmakers and transportation advocates called on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to implement a long-delayed crash prevention technology called Positive Train Control.
The technology slows down a train that is going too fast or has missed red signals.
Positive train control was mandated nationwide after a fatal crash in California in 2008. Logistical problems and issues with contractors have delayed its implementation for years.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut spoke at New Haven’s Union Station Tuesday.
“Positive train control is a national mandate that we are capable of achieving if we simply invest the effort and the resources.”
Tuesday marks 50 years since a train crash in Darien that killed four people and injured 43. That crash sparked the first calls for the technology.
Railroads are required by federal law to install the technology by December 2020 or face fines.
The MTA continues to reinstall positive train control for the Long Island Rail Road after officials found the technology was installed on train cars wrong in April.
