The MTA will receive a $967 million loan to upgrade its Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road systems in an effort to prevent future train accidents.

The loan was approved by the federal government in response to the derailment that killed four passengers and injured 61 others in Dec. 2013. The incident occurred aboard a New York City-bound Metro-North train while it was traveling on a round curve near the Spuyten Duyvil train station.

It was later revealed that the train's engineer, William Rockefeller, suffered from sleep apnea and dozed off at the controls.

The loan will help pay for Positive Train Controls, a set of advanced technologies that could have helped prevent the disaster by automatically stopping or slowing the train.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D - Harrison) has been calling for PTC since the fatal incident occurred.

"This will have an enormous impact," said Rep. Lowey. "If a train is going fast and another train is on the tracks you can automatically prepare for this kind of potential disaster."

The MTA told News 12 that they plan on paying back the loan over the course of the next 22 years.