Wednesday, September 16, 2015

A day late and a dollar short


If you were thinking that railroad safety improvements would be in place by the end of the year, as mandated by law, think again.
Congress should extend the deadline for freight and passenger railroads to install technology that could prevent deadly train accidents, like the Amtrak derailment in May that killed eight people and injured more than 200, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Congress set a deadline of Dec. 31 for freight and commuter rail companies to install the technology, which is known as positive train control, after a California passenger train accident in 2008 killed 25 people. But the new report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that the vast majority of railroads will not meet that deadline.

Amtrak has said it will be able to install and activate the safety systems in the busy Northeast Corridor — which extends from Washington to Boston — by that date, but the new report says that is not the case because parts of that line are owned and operated by different entities.

The report said a number of issues had contributed to delays installing the system, including that the technology is new and that there are a limited number of suppliers. The report said the government had also contributed to delays in installation. For example, railroads had to stop construction along tracks on radio poles — which make the GPS technology work — because they had not gone through an environmental evaluation process.

The report also found that the Federal Railroad Administration had not provided adequate oversight; it took the agency seven months to review the first safety plan it received from a railroad.

Railroads across the country that have not installed and activated the necessary equipment could face federal fines and other mandates if they continue operating without it past Dec. 31, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

The Government Accountability Office report bolsters assertions by some lawmakers that an extension is needed. A Senate bill that was passed in July would push the deadline to 2018. The bill would add money to the Department of Transportation’s budget to help the industry with installation of the technology because the equipment is expensive and time-consuming to install across thousands of miles of track.
The deadline will probably be extended, but with no extra funding, it is not likely to do a whole lot of good. Republicans may talk a mean game, but they never fund what is necessary.

Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]