The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced Tuesday it gave New Jersey Transit approval to begin revenue service demonstration of its positive train control system, moving Transit one-step closer to meeting the federally mandated deadline of PTC certification by Dec. 31, 2020.

“Entering the RSD phase of PTC is a major milestone and a testament to the incredible work by our employees working around the clock with our contractors to ensure this important safety technology implementation remains on schedule,” NJ Transit President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Corbett said.

Corbett added he was confident that with this announcement, and the continued support of the FRA, NJ Transit could meet the federal deadline for full implementation of PTC.

Gov. Phil Murphy said the FRA’s approval allows NJ Transit to initiate RSD on the Morristown Line between Summit and Denville. Previously, field testing was conducted on test trains that did not carry customers.

During revenue service demonstration, Transit’s current safety technology, called Automatic Train Control, will remain active and will not be affected by the testing.

Transit continues to conduct and expand its non-revenue testing on its other rail lines and is working collaboratively with Amtrak and freight operators to ensure interoperability of all positive train control systems.

In December 2018, NJ Transit marked 100 percent completion of the FRA’s 2018 year-end milestone for positive train control that included installation on 282 locomotives and cab cars, 326 miles of wayside infrastructure such as poles and antennas and trained 1,745 employees.