OF THE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE AND
TRANSPORTATION
*******
February 25, 1998
2:00 p.m.
Presented by
Lonnie E. Blaydes, Jr.
Vice President-Commuter Rail
And Railroad Management
Dallas Area Rapid Transit
American Public Transit Association
1201 New York Avenue, N. W.
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 898-4000
APTA is a nonprofit international association of over 1,100 member
organizations including transit systems; planning, design, construction and finance firms;
product and service providers; academic institutions, and state associations and
departments of transportation. APTA members serve the public interest by providing safe,
efficient and economical transit services and products. Over ninety percent of persons
using public transportation in the United States and Canada are served by APTA members.
Madam Chairman and Members of the Surface Transportation and Merchant
Marine Subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to present
the views of the American Public Transit Association (APTA) on the issue of rail safety.
My name is Lonnie Blades, and I am Vice President-Commuter Rail and
Rail Management for Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). In partnership with the Ft. Worth
Transportation Authority, DART operates Trinity Railway Express, the nation’s newest
commuter rail system. Since we began operations 14 months ago, Trinity Railway Express is
proud to report steadily increasing ridership and a perfect rail safety record.
About APTA and Commuter Rail
APTA is a private, non-profit trade association that represents
the North American transit industry. Established in 1882, APTA has more than 1,100
members, including local mass transit systems, manufacturers, suppliers and consultants.
Most germane to this hearing, APTA’s membership includes fourteen U.S. commuter
railroads. These rail agencies transport over 1.2 million people every day, taking them to
work, to shop, to school or to other economic and social activities.
Our recent report titled Serving America’s Emerging Suburban /
Urban Economy identifies commuter rail as an economic lifeline between cities and
suburbs, generating benefits for the commuter and non-commuter alike. Demand for commuter
rail service is on the rise. Overall commuter rail ridership increased almost ten percent
between 1993 and 1996. In addition, at least 15 other U.S. communities have new commuter
rail projects in the planning stages.
Commuter Rail and Safety
Safety has been and will continue to be a top priority for commuter
railroads – a commitment that is reflected in their excellent safety records.
Commuter rail agencies fully appreciate their public responsibility to operate safe
systems for their riders and their employees and will continue to honor this commitment in
the years ahead.
Just a few weeks ago, Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris
told a meeting of FRA’s Rail Safety Advisory Committee that preliminary numbers
indicate that 1997 was the safest year in railroad history in terms of train accident and
employee injuries, both of which dropped sharply in 1997.
The railroad industry’s long-term and short-term safety record is
excellent. The overall train accident rate has fallen by 22 percent since 1990, and by an
astonishing 56 percent since 1981. Derailments and employee injuries have shown similar
improvement. Federal data reveal that railroads have lower employee injury rates than
competing transportation modes and American industry generally. But as good as these
numbers are, APTA’s commuter rail members have not let success retard their efforts
to make passenger rail service even safer.
Commuter Rail Safety Initiatives
Such success is attributable to a continuing commitment to rail safety
on the part of the nation’s commuter railroads, a commitment that is reflected in
several new, innovative approaches to rail safety. Following are several of the new safety
initiatives in which the nation’s commuter railroads are participating:
- Passenger Rail Safety Standards (PRESS):
Commuter railroads have contributed $1.2
million toward the establishment of passenger rail equipment safety standards. An industry
task-force including representatives from the passenger railroads, rail labor equipment
manufacturers and governmental agencies are setting mandatory standards for safety
critical functions, as well as identifying and recommending good practices for passenger
equipment design and maintenance. To date, 17 safety standards or practices have been
adopted, and an additional 40 are in process for adoption by the end of 1998.
- System Safety Plans:
All commuter rail agencies voluntarily established system
safety plans in 1997. Such plans were in accordance with recently adopted industry
procedures titled Guide to Establishing Commuter Rail System Safety Plans. All 14
U.S. commuter railroads have completed their Plans. System Safety is a system-wide
approach to safety in which every employee and supervisor is responsible for the safe
operation of the railroad. The system safety approach analyses every aspect of a
railroad’s operation in terms of the potential safety hazards. These safety hazards
are then acted upon in the most appropriate manner with priority given based upon the
severity and likelihood of the hazard.
- Commuter Rail System Safety Management Program:
Under this program, APTA audits the
system safety management practices of its members to determine if the commuter rail system
safety programs are effective and how individual railroad’s system safety efforts can
be improved. APTA is working with the FRA to coordinate our Commuter Rail System Safety
Management Program with the FRA’s Safety Assurance and Compliance Program in order to
provide coordinated and effective assistance to the nation’s commuter railroads in
safety matters.
- Rail Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC):
Formed in March 1996, RSAC represents a
significant advance in FRA’s rulemaking process. We applaud the FRA’s move to
consensus-based rulemaking, and fully support the RSAC process. Experts from throughout
the rail industry are working together in technical working groups to establish standards
on Emergency Preparedness, Radio Communication, Event Recorders, Roadway Worker Safety,
Locomotive Crashworthiness, Positive Train Control, and other areas. We consider this
participatory process involving rail labor and management and the FRA to be the most
effective way to identify safety improvements that will result in significant safety
improvements for rail passengers and employees.
Commuter railroads continually review the human factors involved in
train operations to find ways to improve the safety of operations while maintaining
cost-effective service. They invest millions of dollars in training and other employee
education programs. For example, just last week APTA, FRA and FTA sponsored a highly
successful seminar on worker fatigue that attracted over a hundred rail labor and
management officials from across the country. Workshop participants developed an eight
point action plan focused on the educational and training efforts that constitute the
critical first steps toward enhanced fatigue management and fitness for duty programs at
our member railroads.
Self Regulation: Critical to Safety
A key aspect in Commuter Rail safety performance is its emphasis on
self-regulation. The success of self-regulation is clearly demonstrated in the commuter
rail industry’s safety record. Our commuter railroads are proactive about safety
performance and have worked hard to develop industry-wide safety standards, and they
routinely identify and address safety problems without waiting for regulatory
intervention. An example of this is the system safety plans noted above which were
voluntarily put into operation by commuter railroads in 1997.
APTA encourages the Subcommittee to reauthorize the Rail Safety Act
provisions as they are currently written and to support the FRA’s consensus-based
approach to regulation. APTA considers it unnecessary and unproductive to use Rail Safety
legislation as a vehicle for new federal statutes. Additional statutory requirements could
divert limited resources away from projects which foster rail safety and enhance passenger
rail transportation or alternatively, result in increased passenger fares which cause rail
riders to return to their cars, a far more hazardous mode of transportation.
Rail Safety User Fees: Inequitable and Counterproductive
APTA thanks the Senate for its support in 1995 to sunset the use of
Rail Safety User Fees and strongly urges the Subcommittee to reject any proposal to
re-impose these fees on passenger and freight railroads, as it did in the FY 1998 budget
deliberations. Industries whose safety is monitored by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) do not pay user fees to OSHA for its regulatory programs. Likewise,
railroads should not have to pay safety user fees to the FRA to pay for its regulation of
the rail industry. APTA further notes that the public interest is not served by having
public agency commuter railroads send their public subsidies to the federal government.
Other Safety Issues
We note that over ninety percent of all rail-related fatalities involve
either grade crossings or trespassers. Most often, rail operators have limited control
over these types of fatalities. However there are four major ways to address the problem:
elimination of unnecessary grade crossings; installation of safety devices; increased
enforcement of highway traffic laws; and public education such as that provided through
Operation Lifesaver and many commuter railroads, including DART.
We need to eliminate or improve grade crossings to be particularly
effective. APTA favors a provision in the pending ISTEA Reauthorization bill, S-1173,
which would reauthorize the Section 130 Program to establish a minimum guarantee for grade
crossing projects. Under current law, states are free to use funds for either grade
crossings or for "hazard elimination" projects, which can include work such as
shoulder widening and traffic circle elimination.
APTA urges Congress to encourage federal regulators to shift to
measuring safety performance in terms of real-world results, to move away from the
one-size-fits-all approach to safety regulation, a move that is in accord with regulatory
initiatives in other federal programs such as pipeline safety. To the degree that
regulation occurs, APTA urges that the principles of the Administrative Procedure Act be
adhered to, especially with respect to the requirements for prior notice and comment.
Finally, we note that many communities are undertaking commuter rail
and rail transit projects in traditional rail freight corridors. This is quite logical, as
the use of existing rights of way can often minimize the adverse impacts of dislocation.
However, to the degree that passenger operations and freight operations are obliged to
co-locate in the same corridors, it is imperative that they cooperate with one another in
doing so. This is a safety issue as well as an access issue. We ask that the Subcommittee
urge the Surface Transportation Board to develop procedures that provide for the quick and
fair handling of rail access disputes where cooperation is required to maintain rail
safety.
Conclusion
The nation’s commuter railroads have demonstrated a strong
commitment to enhancing the safety of their passengers, employees and the American public,
a commitment that continues to be a top priority. We urge the Senate to reauthorize the
Rail Safety Act as it is currently written, building on and strengthening the successful
consensus-based rulemaking efforts that the FRA has established. We feel this may be the
ideal time to move towards a more performance or experience-based process already embraced
by other transportation modes.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I would be happy to answer
any questions or provide any additional information that may be useful to the
Subcommittee.
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