(The following report appeared at The Hub website on August 1.)
RED BANK, N.J. — U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) has introduced a bipartisan bill to make America’s railroads safer for train passengers and railroad employees, and people who drive across or live next to railroad tracks.
“A 21st-century rail system cannot run on safety laws from decades ago,” Lautenberg said in a press release. “We are risking people’s lives by letting train crews work too long and leaving highway crossings unsafe. We need to decrease the risk of injury and death through smarter regulation and modern technology.”
The federal rail safety programs have not been reauthorized since 1994. Last year, 841 Americans died in railroad accidents. Lautenberg’s bill would address three industry-wide safety concerns:
Employee fatigue under the “hours of service” laws.
Today, train crews can work up to 400 hours in 30 days. Lautenberg’s bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Transportation to update these rules so employees would be provided more rest. The bill would also reduce “limbo time,” or time spent traveling back to an employee’s duty station after working, or waiting for transportation to return.
New safety technology, or “Positive Train Control” (PTC).
PTC can reduce train crashes and help save lives by automatically braking a moving train if the engineer fails to apply the brake before a stop signal. This technology has been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s “most wanted” list for the rail industry since 1990. Lautenberg first proposed requiring this technology on the Northeast Corridor in 1987.
Grade crossing safety.
Ninety-four percent of all rail-related deaths involve accidents at highway-rail-grade crossings, or accidents involving trespassers. Lautenberg’s bill would require states to report the methods of protection at all highway-rail-grade crossings to the federal government, so the government can identify problem areas and reduce the risk.
Lautenberg introduced his bill, The Railroad Safety Enhancement Act of 2007, while chairing a railroad safety hearing in his Commerce subcommittee. Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) are original cosponsors of Lautenberg’s legislation.