The agency in charge of overseeing the nation’s railway network is promising to move ahead with heavy fines, with a majority of railroad operators set to miss a Dec. 31 deadline by which to update key safety features.
Acting head of the Federal Railroad Administration Sarah Feinberg said Thursday the US would proceed with the penalties, despite lawmakers and industry officials growing jittery about their economic impact.
“The deadline is not going to be met, that is disappointing to me and I think that has safety consequences that I’m concerned about,” Feinberg told the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee at an oversight hearing.
She described herself as being trapped between a “rock and a hard place” and acknowledged that forcing non-compliant operators off the tracks “also has consequences.”
Feinberg said, however, that she would enact fines if Congress didn’t extend the deadline.
At the heart of the matter, is a mechanism called Positive Train Control (PTC) that monitors and regulates rail traffic. Congress mandated its implementation nationwide in 2008 following a deadly California commuter train crash.
A Government Accountability Office report that studied 29 railroad operators and the adoption of PTC was published this week. It found that 23 companies were behind schedule, with some expecting completion as late as 2020.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) recommended granting non-complying railroads a reprieve.
“The reality is that, if only a few railroads could not meet the deadline, perhaps we could conclude there is an issue with those railroads,” Sen. Thune said. “But if nearly every railroad in the country will not meet the deadline, we need to acknowledge there is an issue with the deadline.”
He claimed that a railroad shutdown would lead to “large-scale disruptions to the nation’s economy.”
“I believe, absent Congressional action, we will begin to see the effects of the deadline four to six weeks prior to the Dec. 31 deadline as railroads begin to cycle traffic off their lines,” Thune alleged. “This is a looming economic and safety disaster that is completely avoidable.”
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) brushed aside safety concerns, and chastised the acting administrator for not better disclosing with rail operators the types of fines they are facing in order to determine whether the safety technology was worth it.
“Why can’t you be more specific so the railroads can make an analysis about the cost-benefit of the penalties they might incur versus operation?” she asked.
Sen. McCaskill also pressed Feinberg to respond to a recommendation from the GAO for Congress to give more authority to the FRA administrator to extend the deadline on a case-by-case basis.
“I am anxious about the prospect of entering into negotiations with 40 different railroads on a case-by-case basis which will results in a ‘choose your own deadline’ back-and-forth,” Feinberg responded.
At one point, Feinberg told senators that the FRA will “issue fines and we will likely impose additional requirements on those railroads that will raise the bar on safety if they choose to operate without PTC implemented.” She also referenced penalties as high as $25,000 per day of non-compliance.
A deadly Amtrak crash outside Philadelphia in May killed eight people and injured over 200, renewing calls on Capitol Hill to push ahead with rail safety measures.
In August, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote to the FRA discouraging the agency from being too lenient with railroads that fail to implement safety devices.
“This critical, life-saving technology could have prevented hundreds of other deaths and thousands of injuries,” the Senator wrote. “Railroads need to be held accountable for their deliberate or negligent failure to comply with an existing legal deadline.”
The National Association of Railroad Passengers President Jim Mathews defended railroads that are behind schedule in a statement last week, and claimed that the safety regulations amounted to an “enormous unfunded mandate.”
The trade group, nevertheless on Thursday, formally endorsed Sarah Feinberg to head the FRA.
