On December 31, 2015, railroads will be required to have Positive Train Control to operate. This deadline is unobtainable for most railroads as the system has to be individually designed, produced, and installed individually for every single section of track. Even most government owned commuter railroads will be unable to meet this deadline. Without a functioning rail system, the burden of transporting commuters and freight will be shifted onto the road network, which already suffers from traffic jams every day. Without functioning railroads this congestion will only worsen. Rail transport remains the safest form of transport in the nation; while extremely important, rushing the installation of PTC to an impossibly close deadline is not worth stopping the nation's transportation system.
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