HUTCHINSON, Kan. — It has been in the works for several years and endured several delays, but most of the nation’s railroads will have a majority of what is known as Positive Train Control in place in the next year or two making trains safer through Reno County. The government-mandated technology uses GPS and other technology to help eliminate train collisions and human error.

Several delays have occurred in getting the technology installed due to the immense cost of railroads and the time it takes to install and test the system.

The subject of PTC came to a head again two weeks ago after an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in Tacoma, Washington, killing six people. PTC was installed on the line, but was not working at the time of the accident. If working, PTC would have stopped the train on its own for violating a speed restriction area.

Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad, says it plans to install PTC in Kansas starting early in 2018 including the line running through Hutchinson. Jeff DeGraff, area spokesperson for UP, says they hope to have a better idea of where and when the PTC will go first, but that the line running through Hutchinson will be a part of it.

UP runs between 25 and 30 trains per day through Reno County. The railroad suffered a collision of two trains on the line serving Hutchinson three years ago when a train ran through a red signal and hit the back end of another train that was moving onto a siding. The NTSB determined that PTC would have likely prevented the accident.