In the weeks since the Amtrak 188 crash in Philadelphia, federal, state and local officials have tried to put together a timeline of the evening and discern who was responsible for the crash.
Meanwhile, the Amtrak 188 crash has propelled our nation’s lawmakers into decidedly more intense discussions and decisions over federal funding for Amtrak, and the technology it needs to install to prevent future problems.
House Decides to Cut Amtrak Construction Spending
A bill that would cut Amtrak’s authorization for new construction spending by 40 percent was unanimously approved recently by the House Transportation Committee. This spending cut comes on the heels the fatal Amtrak 188 crash.
The measure, which was passed on a voice vote with little debate, would reduce Amtrak’s authorized spending level for new construction from approximately $1.3 billion per year under the last Amtrak funding measure to about $770 million annually beginning next year.
The measure to cut Amtrak’s construction budget is a reauthorization of the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, which is a year overdue. The new bill has been renamed the Passenger Rail Reform and Investment Act (PRRIA).
Amtrak is a government-owned corporation that has been subsidized by Congress since its inception. The company has countered criticism about its subsidies by pointing out that most of the money is used to maintain money-losing, long-distance routes in parts of the country that have little service.
Overview of Amtrak 188 Crash
Eight people were killed and more than 200 injured when an Amtrak train carrying 243 people from Washington D.C. to New York, on the nation’s busiest rail corridor, derailed in Philadelphia on May 12.
The crash investigation is still ongoing, but representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board have already confirmed that the train was travelling more than 100 miles per hour when it hit a curve, which has a posted speed limit of 50 mph.
While the reasons for the acceleration are still unknown, Amtrak has taken a lot of heat for its perceived role in the crash, as it’s come out in the weeks since that the company failed to implement technology that would have almost undoubtedly prevented the tragedy from occurring.
The technology installed on train tracks is called Positive Train Control, and it automatically slows down trains that are traveling at speeds that are too fast, which is especially important for when engineers err, especially since they typically don’t have the equivalent of a “co-pilot.”
The NTSB has called for Positive Train Control implementation for decades, and Congress put a deadline of Dec. 31 of this year for railroad companies to install it. Amtrak has said it plans to meet that deadline, making it one of the only railroad companies that will actually do so.
According to the National Journal, Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman told Congress that PTC would have been installed sooner, especially in the well-traveled Northeast Corridor, if more federal funding had been made available to the company.
Amtrak 188 Lawsuits
To date, six Amtrak lawsuits have been filed in Philadelphia on behalf of passengers injured in the May 12 crash that killed eight people. Hundreds more Amtrak crash lawsuits are expected to follow.
Obtain a Free Amtrak Train Crash Lawsuit Evaluation
If you or a loved one were injured or killed during the May 12, 2015 Amtrak derailment, you may have a legal claim.
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One thought on Congress Moves Toward Cutting Amtrak Funding Following Crash
After the derailment at Joplin, MT I believe they should shut down Amtrak. It’s a pile of junk iron from the 1960s. The train tumped over on a straightaway piece of track that was inspected 2 days prior to the derailment.