(The following article by Larry Mitchell was posted on the Oroville Mercury Register website on January 30.)
OROVILLE, Calif. — Legislation designed to improve rail safety passed the state Assembly with virtually unanimous support this week.
Assembly Bill 158, authored by Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez, D-Norwalk, would create a task force of experts to look at the state’s rail system and make recommendations.
Also, on Thursday, Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer, D-Glendale, introduced Assembly Bill 1157, which would put a $500 million bond measure on the ballot. The money would go for eliminating dangerous at-grade crossings over railroad tracks around the state.
Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico, said he thought the Bermudez bill was needed, in part because train use has been increasing.
Bermudez’s measure now moves to the state Senate.
“The findings and recommendations of the task force will provide the Legislature and myself with the tools needed to enact stronger safety standards,” Bermudez was quoted as saying in a news release.
Among the issues the task force would study are the potential for vandalism and terrorist activities, the railroads’ responses to emergencies and land-use issues concerning railroads.
A train accident in Glendale a year ago inspired Frommer and Bermudez to act on the railroad safety issue. In that accident, a Metrolink train crashed into an SUV parked on the tracks. Eleven people were killed and 200 were hurt.
Frommer and others have questioned the railroads’ “push-pull operations,” in which on one part of a trip, a locomotive pushes the railroad cars and on the return trip pulls them. The practice is simpler for the railroad since the locomotive doesn’t have to be moved.
Metrolink and other railroads say the practice has proven to be safe, but Frommer doesn’t believe it, said Karen Kim, his press secretary.
She said Frommer has called for banning push-pull operations.