(The following story by Christopher Conkey appeardd on the Wall Street Journal website on September 25.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Legislation that would mandate collision-avoidance systems for trains and boost funding for passenger rail service is being blocked by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, one of the Senate’s leading fiscal hawks.
In a phone interview, Mr. Coburn said the continuing credit crisis and the potential for a $700 billion federal rescue plan added to specific concerns he has over additional spending in the rail package, which has an estimated cost of about $14 billion over five years.
“We’re on a short financial leash for at least the next couple of quarters,” Mr. Coburn said. “We have to start doing things now… that will make a difference for the future.”
Transportation leaders in Congress reached an agreement Wednesday on a long-pending package of bills that would provide record levels of funding for Amtrak, increase the number of federal railroad inspectors and limit the consecutive hours train crews can work. The package also includes a mandate for rail operators to equip their trains with collision avoidance technology that could have prevented the Sept. 12 train crash in California that killed 25 people.
The House passed the legislation on Wednesday night, and supporters hoped it would clear the Senate by the end of the week. Earlier this month, Mr. Coburn also blocked a House-Senate conference from ironing out differences between two Amtrak bills that had passed each chamber by large margins.
Mary Kerr, a spokeswoman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said she is still confident that supporters of the bill can find a way around Mr. Coburn’s objections and clear the Senate.
“We think there is enough momentum in the Senate to get this done, and in our view, it would be absurd to hold up a good safety bill in light of the recent tragedy in California,” Ms. Kerr said in an email.
A National Transportation Safety Board official said the California train crash could have been prevented if the commuter train was equipped with a technology known as “positive train control,” or PTC, which automatically stops trains if they proceed through a stop signal. The bill being debated in Congress would mandate PTC systems for trains by 2015.
While Mr. Coburn said the bill has “a lot of great reforms,” he also said it lacks performance metrics for Amtrak and contains unacceptable taxpayer subsidies for food and beverage service on Amtrak trains.
“Amtrak loses $2 billion a year subsidizing food,” Mr. Coburn said. “There are a lot of great reforms in this bill, but you’re missing $2 billion. Nobody’s going to not ride Amtrak because a beer costs a dollar more.”
Mr. Coburn also opposes a provision that would steer $1.5 billion to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, saying passengers and local authorities should fund mass transit operations in the nation’s capital.