Saturday, January 06, 2018By Mike Ludwig,
Truthout | News Analysis
Japan's high-speed bullet
train system carries 1 million riders
every day and has a remarkable safety record, at least compared to passenger
trains in the United States. Passengers have taken billions of rides on
Japanese bullet trains since the system was established 50 years ago, but not
one passenger has died due to a derailment or collision.
In the US commuters and
travelers use trains less than the Japanese, but US passenger train lines
have suffered five major wrecks that killed or injured passengers over the past
decade, including the recent derailment of an Amtrak passenger train that
killed three people and injured more than 50 others in DuPont, Washington on
December 18. Among the dead were two active members of the Rail Passengers
Association, a group that pushes for greater access to passenger rail services.
A "constellation of
factors" contributed to this spate of deadly train accidents, including
train companies' habit of cutting corners to save money and a national failure
to fund railroad and transportation infrastructure, according to Railroad
Workers United, a national union representing railroad workers.
President Trump has used the
DuPont crash to tout an infrastructure proposal due out later this month.
However, critics say Trump's plan would leave struggling state and local
government on the hook for repairing crumbling roads, bridges and railroads as
Congress looks for ways to pay for the GOP tax cut package that Trump signed
into law last month.
US Railroads -- Underfunded
and Unsafe
Railroads around the world
have made significant advances in safety, efficiency and infrastructure over
the past century, and passengers in Japan, Europe and beyond enjoy affordable,
high-speed transportation between many major cities. This is not the case in the
US, where high-speed rail service is limited in most parts of the country. Most
US railroads still operate on gradients laid in the 19th century that are
"full of curvature, steep grades and other impediments to safe and
efficient operation," according to Railroad Workers United.
"When upgrades are made,
they are often inadequately funded, leading to unsafe conditions for employees,
passengers and those living trackside," the union said in a collective
statement released on Wednesday. "Unless and until this nation can make a
commitment to advancing modern passenger train transportation through adequate
and necessary funding, we will continue to lag behind the rest of the world,
and continue to suffer tragedies like the one in Dupont, WA."
The deadly derailment of
Amtrak Train 501 in DuPont occurred at a sharp curve in the track that state
officials have hoped to restructure as part of an effort to expand high-speed
rail to the Seattle region, according to The Seattle Times. However, adequate
funding for rail infrastructure projects has not surfaced in Washington State,
and the Times recently called the curve "a symbol of unsteady
political support in the United States for rapid-rail infrastructure."
"The tragedy in
Washington State highlights what everyone already knows, that so much of
America's infrastructure is teetering on the edge of disaster," said
Donald Cohen, director of the public services policy group In the Public
Interest, in an email to Truthout.
The government's investigation
of the accident is ongoing, but an initial review by the National Transportation and
Safety Board found that the conductor of the Amtrak train hit the curve at a
much higher speed than he was supposed to. The accident occurred during the
first day of higher-speed service on the line, and Amtrak workers and their
unions have expressed concern that operators were not properly
trained during nighttime trial runs prior to the change.
John Risch, the legislative
director for the SMART Transportation Division, a union of engineers and train
technicians, said US railroad companies "do not require training like they
should" due to cost-cutting measures.
"Time and time again we
have urged the railroads to allow more training trips before they go out, and
they will say one or two trips is enough," Risch said in a statement.
"It's a cost issue.... That's something that has been a problem."
Railroad Workers United points
out that all five major train wrecks in the past decade occurred with only one
trained engineer controlling the main cab of the locomotive. (There were two
engineers in the cab during the DuPont crash, but only one was trained on the
route, and was in the process of training the other for future runs.) The union
has long advocated that two qualified engineers be present on every train, as
is the case for commercial airliners, which are required to have two pilots in
the cockpit.
However, train companies have
pushed back on these demands, citing the costs of hiring extra workers. They
have also dragged their feet on installing automated braking technology
mandated by Congress after a major crash in 2008. Congress extended the
deadline for installing the technology from 2015 to the end of 2018 after train
operators threatened to shut down the rail system in 2015.
Railroad Workers United said
the automated braking technology, known as Positive Train Control, has been
around for a century and could have prevented several deadly wrecks, including
the crash in DuPont. In the past, Positive Train Control protected thousands of
miles of mainline train tracks, but the union said railroad companies have
largely dismantled this infrastructure to save money "while government
regulators turned a blind eye."
"As rank and file
railroad workers, we experience day-in-and-day-out the carriers' cynical view
of safety, the push for profit, the demand for increased stock prices, the
budget cutting, the recklessness and the total disregard for workers'
lives," the union said. "This is why Train 501 wrecked."
All Eyes on Trump's
Infrastructure Proposal
This most recent railroad
accident has renewed calls for federal investment in transportation and other
infrastructure, including from President Trump, who released this tweet shortly
after the DuPont crash:
The train accident that just
occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted
infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in
the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble!
Not for long!
Of course, the Trump
administration has done nothing to scale back US involvement in
expensive and bloody military entanglements in the Middle East, and Trump
recently authorized a massive $700 billion defense budget. In contrast,
the White House's 2018 budget proposed cutting programs
that fund transportation services and infrastructure by $1.7 billion, including
$630 million in cuts to Amtrak alone.
Trump campaigned on promises
to rebuild crumbling roads, bridges, railroads and other infrastructure in the
US, but his administration's first attempt at rolling out an infrastructure
proposal last year failed to generate any excitement in the media or Congress.
The Trump administration's $1
trillion infrastructure blueprint released last spring only includes $200
billion in actual government spending, with the rest coming from unnamed
private investors incentivized by a "mixture of loans and grants" and
Trump's deregulatory agenda. Other ideas proposed in the plan include allowing
more tolls on interstate highways and opening roadside rest areas to private
investment.
The White House has promised
to release a more detailed infrastructure proposal by the end of January.
However, it's still a $1 trillion plan -- about half of what the American
Society of Civil Engineers says is needed to fix the nation's infrastructure --
and preliminary reports indicate it would still only allocate $200 billion in
federal spending. The remaining $800 billion would be shifted to state and
local governments, forcing them to make difficult deals with private companies.
"The hard truth is that
we need nothing short of a Marshall Plan level of direct federal investment in
our roads, bridges, broadband, and transit and water systems," Cohen said.
"What we know of Trump's infrastructure plans is that he wants to do just
the opposite and put more burden on city and state governments, essentially
forcing them to sell off or lease our infrastructure to Wall Street and global
corporations."
Cohen and other critics say Trump should have put "America
first" and rolled out a robust infrastructure funding package before
signing the GOP tax bill, which gives tax breaks to the rich and adds $1.5
trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. Republicans in Congress
are already eyeing cuts to domestic safety net and health
care programs to pay for the tax package, which largely benefits corporations
and the wealthy.
Meanwhile, the deficit created
by the tax package coupled with Congress's self-imposed spending limits could
force deep cuts to the trust funds that support railroad workers who are laid
off or miss work due to illness, according to the SMART Transportation Division. As the
rash of recent rail accidents suggests, this is a workforce that is already
stretched too thin.
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