Talking from experience?
ETA: I also caught the first part of the press conference with Amtrac's president. He said that they were "on track" to get the PTC system deployed in that area before the federal deadline.
Probably wasn't the best turn of phrase he could have used...
The original deadline was 2015. It was extended to the end of 2018 ... and is likely to be extended again.
The question is -- this was a BRAND NEW line. Why the [bleep] would they build a NEW line -- for gazillions of dollars -- and not have the Positive Train Control working when the line went live? The trains have it -- it gets used on other parts of the route. They jst didn't connect all the dots on the new route. This was sheer idiocy.
I read an article that cited a statement by someone, I think with the NTSB, after a train crash in 2016 predicting that if they didn't get PTC implemented, "we'll be having this discussion again after the next fatality" (or something like that). as Bugs Bunny use to say, "Truer woids was nevah spoken."
The same article mentioned that this train had two engineers on board, where normally there would ony be one. I wonder if they put a brick on the deadman's switch and were playing cards -- or looking at porn.