WASHINGTON, D.C. — Railroad track safety concerns and recent train derailments, including incidents in Florida, California, and South Carolina, will be the topic of a Congressional subcommittee hearing on Thursday.
The hearing by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Railroads, chaired by U.S. Rep. Jack Quinn (R-NY), is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 6th, in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building. Live audio and video broadcasts of the hearing will be available at the Committee’s website: www.house.gov/transportation
Thursday’s tentative witness list includes:
— Allan Rutter, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration
— Marion Blakey, Chairman, National Transportation Safety Board
— Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, Circadian Technologies
— Stephen Strachan, Vice President & Chief Transportation Officer, Amtrak
— Ed Hamberger, President, Association of American Railroads
— Dan Pickett, President, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
During April and May there were a number of derailments in the United States. Three derailments resulted in deaths and injuries:
— On April 18, 2002, Amtrak’s Autotrain derailed in Crescent City, Florida. The result: six dead and 150 injured.
— On April 23, 2002, a BNSF freight train collided with a commuter train in Placentia, California. The result: two dead and more than 186 injured.
— May 14, 2002, an Amtrak train derailed in South Carolina after it collided with a truck. The result: 14 injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent federal agency that investigates significant transportation accidents and issues safety recommendations, has had investigators on the ground at the locations of these derailments.
This hearing will examine the circumstances surrounding these and other derailments, and ideas to potentially protect against future incidents.
The hearing will also examine Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) track safety standards, regulations concerning speed limits for various classes of track, and types of rail. A number of recent derailments may have involved “continuous welded rail.” This is a modern technology using lengths of rail as much as a quarter-mile long, which are welded together. This type of rail poses a different set of safety issues compared to lines composed of short sections bolted together.
Witnesses will also discuss the current Hours of Service Act setting legal limits for on-duty time by railroad employees, and the relationship of that law to current medical knowledge about human wake-sleep cycles.