Senators Seek Rail Safety Funding in Aftermath of Metro Crash

Mere hours after the Washington Metro system suffered a shocking accident, two senior senators released a letter to their colleagues asking for $50 million in grants to improve rail safety technology.

23crash2_600.jpgThe scene of yesterday’s D.C. Metro crash. Photo: NYT

The letter was sent by two chairmen with a central role in transportation policy — commerce committee chief Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and environment committee chief Barbara Boxer (D-CA) — to the two senators who shepherd the annual transportation budget, Patty Murray (D-WA) and Kit Bond (R-MO).

Rockefeller and Boxer noted that a $50 million investment in technology improvement grants was authorized last year when Congress passed a new rail safety law. That law favored rail safety upgrades that implemented "positive train control," a computerized program to prevent crashes that safety experts said might have averted last year’s deadly California Metrolink crash.

As Rockefeller and Boxer wrote to their fellow senators:

More
commuters are turning to commuter rail today than ever before. In these
tough economic times, with many commuter rail agencies facing budget cuts,
funding for the railroad safety technology grants is vital to ensure that
important safety measures continue to be implemented.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Bipartisan Support Builds for Six-Month Extension of Current Transpo Law

By Elana Schor |
The senior Republicans on three of the Senate’s four infrastructure-centric committees signed a bipartisan letter on Tuesday asking the leaders of Congress’ upper chamber to call up a six-month extension of the 2005 transportation law. Senate environment chairman Barbara Boxer. Photo: Politics Now In the letter, Sens. Jim Inhofe (OK), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), and […]

Boxer and Inhofe Agree: Transportation Policy Reform Can Wait

By Elana Schor |
Green transportation advocates are pressing Congress to refuse any new spending that’s not tied to reform of the existing system — a call that influential senators in both parties ruled out today. Photo: CNN Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) joined Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK), the panel’s ranking GOPer, in endorsing […]
STREETSBLOG USA

Senate Finalizing Transpo Bill — It’s Up to Boxer to Preserve Bike/Ped Funding

By Angie Schmitt |
According to Congressional insiders, members of the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works are meeting today and tomorrow to hash out the details of their proposal for a multi-year transportation reauthorization bill. Hanging in the balance of these negotiations may be the federal government’s only programs dedicated to funding infrastructure for biking and walking. […]

It Gets Worse: Boxer/Inhofe to Request $50B More for Highways

By Matthew Roth |
Barbara Boxer and infamous global warming denier James Inhofe will present an amendment to the Senate stimulus plan that could funnel as much as $50 billion in additional funding to highways, Streetsblog has learned. Friends of the Earth tells us that Boxer’s staff confirmed she will introduce the amendment, which could bring the total for […]