Rail safety official: Maintenance problems plague Northeast Corridor

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 8 -- Less than a week after a spate of railway crashes, the nation's top rail safety official said the Northeast rail corridor is plagued by significant maintenance problems.

"On the Northeast Corridor alone, we're billions and billions behind just on [the] state of good repair," Federal Railroad Administration Administrator Sarah Feinberg said Thursday in an interview. "So that's not expanding capacity or speeding up service. That's just maintenance." According to a commission report from 2014, the Northeast Corridor had $21.1 billion in backlog repair needs.

Feinberg also spoke Thursday a meeting of the Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, a working group of various rail stakeholders representing freight companies, passengers and labor.

The series of rail accidents in Pennsylvania and Illinois last week cast a shadow over the assembly. In all, three people were killed and at least 35 injured.

"Accidents like these are reminders of the important work that we do in this committee," said Robert Lauby, chief safety officer for the Federal Railroad Administration. "Unfortunately, it's also a constant reminder of how much work there needs to be done."

There have been 477 freight incidents and 37 fatalities this year, according to the administration's Office of Safety Analysis.

"I think anyone would argue that the Congress needs to take some significant steps," she said. "And look, they just took a big step with the FAST Act, but we've got a long way to go."

President Barack Obama signed the FAST Act in December, enacting the first law in over a decade to provide long-term funding for surface transportation. Included are measures to streamline new railroad projects and provide grants for passenger and freight rail safety programs.

Still, Feinberg said there is a lot more to be done.

In her remarks at the meeting, she laid out a number of efforts the FRA is undertaking to address rail safety. These included encouraging the implementation of Positive Train Control, an automation technology designed to reduce human error by preventing trains from speeding, going through red signals and colliding with other trains.

This week, the FRA announced $25 million to help railroads put Positive Train Control in place by 2018. An additional $199 million will be available for commuter and short line railroads under the FAST Act.

According to a recent report by the Department of Transportation, by 2045 the U.S. population will increase by 70 million and freight volume will increase by 45 percent.

"The rail industry not only will be expected to meet the challenge of this increase in volume, but we will have to do it under an intensifying public spotlight," Feinberg said.