Fewer than a third of America’s commuter railroads will meet a looming deadline to install safety equipment that could prevent derailments, it has emerged during a hearing into the deaths of eight passengers outside Philadelphia last month.
The deadly Amtrak crash, apparently caused when the train hit a bend at more than twice the 50mph speed limit, has refocused attention on automated control technology designed to override drivers in such situations.
But amid wider wrangling in Washington over who should pay for updating creaking US transport infrastructure, Congress is instead now considering extending the December 2015 deadline for implementing the technology by up to five years.
During a hearing on Wednesday, the Federal Railroad Administration also refused to specify what sanctions it would take against operators who failed to comply with the existing deadline – reticence that angered some members of the Senate commerce committee.
“If I were a rider listening to this testimony I would be dumbfounded and outraged,” said Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal.
“There is nothing new or novel about these accidents ... there is nothing new or novel about this [safety] technology. What we are seeing here is a failure of will.”
Demands for speedier implementation of the new technology – known as a positive train control or PTC – were echoed in evidence presented by the National Transportation Safety Board.
“The same story, the story of the accidents that could have been prevented, is repeated too many times,” said vice-chairwoman Bella Dinh-Zarr.
“For every day that passes without PTC we run the risk another deadly, and very preventable, accident,” she added.
Earlier, the safety board revealed there was no evidence that the driver of the train, engineer Brandon Bostian, was using his cellphone at the time of the crash.
Dinh-Zarr said network records showed it was not being used to make calls, texts or access the internet, although its use for other purposes such as accessing apps could not be ruled out entirely.
Bostian has said he has no memory of the events leading up to the crash, but authorities are agreed that the PTC system would probably have prevented the excessive speeding.
Amtrak has already introduced a more basic control system onto the section of track – something it says was relatively straightforward – and plans to have PTC operating all along the heavily used north-east corridor by 2016.
But Robert Lauby of the Federal Railroad Administration told senators that only 29% of US commuter railroads would also make the deadline because they had spent just $950m of the $3.5bn in necessary upgrades.
Freight railroads, which are also required to use the system if transporting hazardous chemicals such as chlorine and ammonia, have spent only $5bn of the necessary $9bn to hit their target.
Even Amtrak’s implementation outside the north-east corridor is threatened by wrangling with freight operators over who should pay and a decision by the House of Representatives on Tuesday to cut its federal budget.
“While I fully support the implementation of PTC, for years I have noted the complexity of its full implementation for both passenger and certain freight railroads,” concluded committee chairman John Thune.
“As a result of this reality, the question in Congress has not been whether to extend the deadline but rather how to extend the deadline,” he added.
