(Bloomberg News circulated the following story by John Hughes on September 24.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. House voted to require rail-safety technology that may have prevented a Sept. 12 crash in Los Angeles that was the deadliest for a passenger train in 15 years.
The voice vote today would require more use of so-called positive train control equipment, which automatically applies brakes when engineers miss signals. The gear would be installed on passenger and commuter routes and on some freight lines, based on risk, by 2016.
The head-on collision between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific Corp. freight train killed 26 people. The Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, who died in the crash, was using his phone to send text messages before the crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The accident sped up consideration of the legislation, said Representative John Mica of Florida, the leading Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The Senate may consider the bill later this week.
“We saw the horrible crash,” Mica said on the House floor. “We couldn’t pass rail-safety provisions at a more appropriate time.”
The measure sets a $50 million annual spending target to help railroads pay for the technology. Positive train control equipment is being tested or used on only about 3 percent of U.S. mainline tracks, including parts of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, according to rail regulators.
Work Rules
The legislation, sponsored by the House committee’s chairman, Minnesota Democrat James Oberstar, also limits rail workers’ so-called limbo time, the period between the end of employees’ shifts and when they actually go off duty. Limbo time would be phased down to 30 hours a month from 40.
The bill would require railroads to set up and maintain toll-free telephone lines for people to report malfunctions of grade-crossing signals, gates and other devices.
Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, would receive $13 billion in subsidies over five years under the legislation. Future Congresses would need to approve the dollars authorized under today’s vote.
The bill allows as much as $300 million a year for states or Amtrak to finance the construction of up to 11 high-speed rail corridors. Mica, a proponent of that section of the bill, called the provision “historic” in that it lets private entities propose such service.
The House previously approved separate rail-safety and Amtrak bills. Transportation leaders agreed ahead of today’s vote to fold the proposals into a new, single bill.