(The following blog by Steve Hymon appeared on the Los Angeles Times website on October 8.)
LOS ANGELES — Important news out of Van Nuys this morning: The two freight railroads that share tracks with Metrolink trains have said they’ll install positive train control by 2012, three years before the new rail safety bill passed by Congress requires them to do so.
The news was part of a hearing on the Metrolink crash that was convened by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal and attended by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Here’s a link to a story about the hearing by my colleague Jennifer Oldham that was just published on our website.
Below is Feinstein’s testimony, as provided by her office. It’s worth reading — there are a lot of examples of rail accidents and other statistics. For example, did you know that 41% of the rail line between Los Angeles and San Diego — the second most heavily traveled corridor in the nation — was single track?
You do now. And I suggest you keep reading.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein
Testimony at California State Senate Hearing on Rail Safety
October 8, 2008 – Van Nuys, CA
*****Prepared for Delivery*****
Senator Lowenthal, thank you for convening this important hearing on the safety of California rail, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify.
There is no question about the need for a full-scale examination of the safety issues on our nation’s passenger rail systems. A thorough discussion of this matter is both necessary and overdue.
It took the deaths of 25 people and the injury of 135 in a horrible and avoidable accident to bring about intensive scrutiny.
This was the third major accident on Metrolink since 2002, and Southern California’s worst train accident in 50 years.
Their deaths have underscored the shocking fact that, nearly a decade into the 21st century, we still have an antiquated rail system that runs much as it did in the 19th Century.
Metrolink passenger trains carry 12 million commuters a year on single tracks that they share with freight trains traveling in the opposite direction.
And the only safety measure in place to avoid disaster is one pair of eyes that belong to an engineer whose work day starts before dawn and ends after sunset.
That engineer typically works alone in the cab, with no backup in case he falls asleep, has a heart attack, misses a signal or engages in prohibited behavior that distracts his attention, like using a cell phone – as was the case in the Chatsworth crash.
A technology called Positive Train Control is in place on other rail systems to prevent human error from causing fatal disaster, but trains in California currently don’t have it.
If Positive Train Control had been in place on Metrolink on September 12th, I believe 25 people would still be alive today.
Matt Rose, BNSF’s Chief Executive Officer, called me Monday to inform me that BNSF and Union Pacific – the two major freight rail lines in Southern California – intend to deploy Positive Train Control in the Los Angeles basin by 2012.
This is good news, and I commend them.
He also said that both federal and state governments may need to help Metrolink and Amtrak with the cost of this system, which I believe we are prepared to do, as I will discuss later.
I understand that there are details that need to be worked out, but I for one intend to hold the freight rail lines to their 2012 commitment.
We can’t change the past, but we must make sure this kind of tragedy is never allowed to happen again. Major changes are needed on the local, state and federal levels.
I want to address three major topics today:
•First, I want to explain why California’s rail system has unique needs that need special attention.
•Second, I will discuss the technical and policy solutions available to mitigate our risks. I will explain how the Rail Safety Improvement Act, enacted by Congress, will bring about change.
•Finally, I will discuss the need to invest real resources in rail so that it may fulfill its potential.
California’s rail system has unique needs that demand serious attention.
Our rail system is growing rapidly.
Amtrak ridership in California has increased 46 percent since 2001.
Ridership on CalTrain from San Francisco to San Jose has increased by nearly 4 million riders in four years, or 48 percent.
San Diego’s COASTER Commuter Rail ridership is up 36 percent since 2001, and;
Metrolink’s system carries more than 12 million people a year, 46 percent more than 2001.
So, the future of passenger rail in California can be a bright one.
But, as I mentioned earlier, we are operating a 21st century rail system on 19th century track. Much of California’s passenger rail system operates on single track rail built to carry freight trains:
•37 percent, or 142.8 miles, of Metrolink’s 389 mile system is single track, as this chart demonstrates.
•41 percent, or 51 miles, of the 125 mile Amtrak and commuter rail corridor from Los Angeles to San Diego – the second most heavily traveled rail corridor in America, with 44 passenger trains daily – is single track.
•80 percent, or 180 miles, of the 225 mile Amtrak and commuter rail line from L.A. north to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo is single track.
•Finally, 88 percent, or 75 miles, of the 85 mile Altamont Commuter Express commuter rail linking Stockton and San Jose is single track.
On these tracks, fully loaded passenger and freight trains travel at high speeds in opposite directions.
Only the attention of the engineer and a red light signaling system patented in 1872 stand in the way of a head-on collision.
Freight trains carrying refrigerators have both a conductor and an engineer in the train cab, and often a brakeman, responsible for watching the signals.
Passenger trains, carrying the precious cargo of our family and friends, have only an engineer in the cab of the train. The conductor – supposedly the second set of eyes – is primarily responsible for collecting tickets and managing the train’s riders.
This is unacceptable.
Our rail lines also frequently cross roads and highways at grade instead of going above or below automotive traffic, creating the potential for collisions with automobiles.
They lack fences to prevent people from walking the tracks.
And not a single mile of California track has modern collision avoidance Positive Train Control systems – though these systems are in place now on more than 3,100 miles of American track.
We can and must modernize California rail.
On October 1, Congress took the first step, sending the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 to President Bush, which he intends to sign.
This is the first national rail safety bill since 1994. And it invests in the future of rail.
Most importantly, the bill mandates installation of positive train control systems on rail lines shared by passenger, commuter and freight trains; and on freight-only lines used to transport hazardous materials.
Here is how Positive Train Control systems work:
•Digital communications are combined with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to monitor train locations and speeds.
•These systems can detect excessive speed, improperly aligned switches, whether trains are on the wrong track, unauthorized train movements, and whether trains have missed signals to slow or stop.
•If engineers do not comply with signals, the system automatically brings the trains to a stop.
In the past 10 years, the National Transportation Safety Board has investigated 52 rail accidents where the installation of a positive train control system would likely have prevented the accident.
These include five serious accidents in 2005 alone, including:
•In Graniteville, South Carolina, a chlorine tanker train turned onto the wrong track and hit another train. A cloud of the green gas leaked, killing nine.
•In Anding, Mississippi, a freight train crew missed a red signal and hit another freight train head on; 15,000 gallons of spilled diesel fuel burned for 15 hours, and all four crewmembers were killed.
•In Shepherd, Texas, a Union Pacific train entered a side track at approximately 37 mph and struck another UP train, killing the engineer.
•In Chicago, Illinois, a commuter train engineer missed a signal instructing him to slow down. The train derailed at a crossover, killing two passengers and injuring more than 80.
•And in Texarkana, Arkansas, two Union Pacific trains collided, causing a flammable gas leak. The gas subsequently exploded in a nearby neighborhood, blowing up a home, killing the inhabitant, and causing the evacuation of 3,000 residents.
In August 1999, the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee published a report entitled “Implementation of Positive Train Control Systems.”
The report concluded that out of 6,400 accidents in the 1990s studied, 2,659 could have been prevented had some form of positive train control been implemented.
Under the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, the Federal Railroad Administration may force the railroads to deploy Positive Train Control technology quickly on the highest risk lines, such as the single track prevalent in Southern California.
I am encouraged that BNSF and UP intend to put this system in place by 2012, and I expect the Federal Railroad Administration to require early action here in Southern California.
But the legislation requires that every line with passenger service, including Metrolink, have Positive Train Control crash avoidance systems in place prior to the expiration of seven years time.
This 2015 date is an outside deadline in this Senator’s mind, and I will push the Federal Railroad Administration to require earlier action in the highest risk locations.
Deploying the next generation of technology will take years. I have asked that Metrolink take immediate interim steps, as follows:
•First, put an additional engineer or assistant engineer in the cab of every train running on single track.
•Second, ensure that the Federal Railroad Administration’s new hours of service rules for commuter trains minimize or abolish split shifts. A work day that starts at 6 am and ends at 9 pm leads to fatigue, even if you give a worker time off in the middle of the day.
•Third, deploy the Automatic Train Stop technology (1940’s technology) that stops trains once they run a signal. I understand that Metrolink will submit an application to the Federal Railroad Administration to install this technology in November, and that it expects to receive approval soon thereafter.
Finally, Metrolink must enforce its cell phone use prohibition, and it must impose strong penalties for violations.
The engineer’s texting in Chatsworth was not a one-time occurrence, according to the NTSB.
Rather, he was a habitual violator of Metrolink’s rules, sending and receiving 45 text messages with his cell phone during the 2 hours and 9 minutes that he operated a train the morning of the deadly crash.
During his afternoon shift, the engineer again used his cell phone to send and receive 12 text messages. The last was sent only 22 seconds before the fatal collision.
Rules are only as useful as their enforcement.
Metrolink and all other rail lines need a zero tolerance policy regarding safety violations.
Upgrading the California Rail system will require resources, so let me turn for a moment to the federal commitment made through the adoption of the Rail Safety Improvement Act last week.
The bill authorizes:
•$250 million in grants to commuter rail systems deploying positive train control.
•$12 million in grants to improve the most dangerous highway-rail intersections.
•$1.5 billion in grants to develop high speed rail.
•Capital and operational support for Amtrak to the tune of more than $13 billion.
The bill also authorized a massive expansion of State Capital Grants program to fund intercity passenger rail infrastructure improvement and expansion.
Funding for these grants will go from the $30 million allocated last year to an authorized funding level of $380 million per year.
Last week, California received a $5 million grant funded by this program, which will create 9.5 miles of continuous double track along the San Joaquin Amtrak route from Corcoran to Hanford. It will allow trains to pass each other at 79 mph.
These funds can be used for positive train control, double tracking, or other improvements to rail system that improve performance and safety.
Bottom Line: This legislation, which I expect the President will sign within days, renews the Federal government’s commitment to passenger rail in America.
But the Federal government cannot bring the entire rail system into the 21st century on its own.
The major freight rail lines have a responsibility to invest in the technology to make positive train control work.
And I will be watching to make sure the Federal Railroad Administration – well-known as a good old boy’s club that rarely forces industry to do much of anything it would not do on its own – becomes the regulator we need.
But this challenge will also require a commitment by the state of California. Senator Lowenthal, I appreciate your leadership in this area.
Your legislation to establish container fees at the ports to fund emissions reductions and rail system improvements shows your dedication to identifying new revenue sources for transportation investment.
I am a firm believer in the future of rail. I have been fighting to establish a high speed rail line down the central valley of California since I ran for governor in 1990. I understand that rail moves both people and goods in a more environmentally friendly and more cost effective manner than most other modes of transportation.
But the future of rail rests on the safety of rail systems.
The recent Metrolink tragedy not only undermined the public’s trust in the safety of our rail system, but it jeopardizes its future.
We cannot continue to have passenger trains and freight trains running on a single track in opposite directions with only a single engineer’s decisions preventing calamity.
Until positive train control is in place – I hope by 2012 – Metrolink must take interim measures to assure safety.
Metrolink trains need an extra set of eyes in the cab to watch for signals. And they need to use existing technology, such as Automatic Train Stop, to prevent engineers from missing signals.
We all have an obligation to step forward and restore trust in our rail system. I look forward to working with you in this effort.