(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Erica Werner on October 16.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Bush signed a sweeping railroad safety bill Thursday mandating measures that could have prevented the Sept. 12 collision that killed 25 people in Los Angeles.
Bush had opposed portions of the bill giving additional funding to Amtrak, and he signed the legislation without fanfare. His spokeswoman announced the action in a press release.
The legislation had stalled as Congress prepared to recess last month. But after the head-on crash in Los Angeles between a freight train and a commuter train drew new attention to safety gaps, lawmakers quickly reached a compromise and hurried the bill through the House and Senate.
The law will require more rest for workers and technology that can stop a train in its tracks if it’s headed for collision. This so-called “positive train control” technology would have prevented the Los Angeles crash, federal officials have said.
The law requires the installation of positive train control technology on all passenger lines by 2015. The railroad industry had resisted a congressionally imposed timeline and said it could be hard to meet. But last week Union Pacific Railroad and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway company pledged to voluntarily beat the 2015 deadline by several years within the Los Angeles area.
The bill also calls for Amtrak to receive $13 billion over five years in subsidies, though Congress will have to separately approve the money year after year.
The Sept. 12 collision occurred when a Metrolink commuter train failed to stop at a red light and ended up on the same track as an oncoming Union Pacific freight.