Where is the Neutral safety switch located?

Yep, that's a good one alright, it says is the shift knob or column shift. I will put this to our other experts to see if they know what's going on. It is not on the left side of the transmission like a typical set up. Here is what they show in the images below. It looks like it is the BCM that controls the reverse light and starter operation.

Both floor and column shift the park switch is internal to the shifter and functions as the park and starter interlock switch. Because of the way they work you also cannot shift into neutral for a restart while moving either. If the switch fails you replace the shift lever module in either case.

So, what happens when the shift cable stretches, it will start in reverse or drive? I thought they figured this out years ago! Thanks for the clarification.

The cable on them is more of an emergency item, it allows for the park pawl, limp mode and the interlock to operate in the event the TCM fails. All the real shifting is done using the solenoids. It's a ZF design and in the original configuration it didn't even have the cable, it was all electronic.