By Philip Newman
U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have proclaimed the Federal Railroad Administration so financially strapped that it can inspect only 1 percent of the nation’s railroads and urged that more money be allocated for the agency in the name of safety on the rails.
“Railroad safety enforcement is anemic — starved of adequate resources and power,” the senators said in a statement in reference to the deadly Metro-North Railroad derailment Dec. 1.
“Funding to enforce federal rail safety standards, now seemingly an afterthought, must be made a priority,” Blumenthal said. “The FRA should match its rhetoric with money and seek more authority to order safety upgrades at railroads across the country. Given the recent accidents, riders need and deserve a watchdog with both bite and bark.”
The FRA has just begun a 60-day inspection of Metro-North following the accident in the Bronx which killed a Queens nurse and three other passengers.
“This derailment should serve as a wake-up call, reminding us that we need to dedicate real resources to the railroads’ main oversight agency so they can hire enough inspectors to ensure the safety of rail passengers across the country,” Schumer said.
“In a congressional briefing last week with the New York and Connecticut federal delegations, FRA officials revealed they are woefully underfunded and unable to fully fulfill their oversight role,” Schumer said.
According to a 2012 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, FRA is only able to inspect about 1 percent of the nation’s tracks each year with the resources it is allocated, Schumer said.
The two senators said they would fight for more money for FRA in the forthcoming 2015 fiscal year appropriations bill so the FRA can hire 45 more inspectors.
Around $9 million was recently cut from the FRA’s budget.
Schumer and Blumenthal noted that the FRA does not attempt to inspect 100 percent of the nation’s railroads each year, a task shared by states and the railroads themselves, but the added funding would allow them to dramatically increase the percentage of inspections and spot safety checks.
Meanwhile, representatives of the FRA Monday began what the agency called Operation Deep Dive, a 60-day inspection of Metro-North routes and equipment and visiting the sites of the derailment in the Bronx that left more than 60 injured as well as locations of three other less serious accidents.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at timesledgernews@cnglocal.com or phone at 718-260-4536.
