Republicans derail safety funding

GOP Cuts Needed Train Safety Subsidy After Train Derailment

By Richard Zombeck

Cartoon by Matt Lubchansky. To see the whole cartoon, click here. 

Almost immediately following a train wreck that derailed a train carrying passengers, the GOP has once again shown their contempt for regular working people. People who use trains, people who travel to work, and people who actually work for a living.

The wreck left eight people dead and more than 200 injured in the Northeast Corridor – the busiest train route in the country. 

Amtrak relies on public funds for safety and daily operations, receiving $2.4 billion dollars from taxpayers to insure safety among other things. 

How the derailment occurred has yet to be determined. It’s not yet clear whether the train was going too fast or equipment failed. What is clear is that people were hurt – a lot of people.

According to officials, tracks, ties, electric wires, communications networks, major bridges and tunnels have outlived their “design life.” They need to be repaired and rebuilt in order to avoid tragedies precisely like this.

As a result of already insufficient financing, last month railroad experts estimated that it would cost an estimated $21.1 billion just to repair existing equipment and structures. That’s only to fix what they’ve got now. We’re not even talking about bullet trains, new stations, or expanding the rails to service more passengers.

And yet, the day after the crash, on Wednesday morning, the Republican majority on the House Appropriations Committee voted to cut Amtrak’s budget by about $260 million. Got that? The day after a train derailed, leaving seven people dead and 200 injured as a result of issues that may have been avoided, the GOP cut the funding that goes into making rail travel safe and possible.

Other countries, such as France, Japan, Brazil and Spain can rely on government to finance and improve their railway system, yet the “greatest country in the world” has trains that can’t travel near the speed of the trains in Japan and France, for example, that travel in excess of 200 miles per hour. The train that derailed was traveling at more than 100 miles per hour – nearly twice the speed limit allowed on that section of the track.

As pointed out in the New York Times:

Among the system’s greatest needs is updated safety equipment, including new systems such as positive train control that can slow a train automatically as it comes to a dangerous curve like the one in Philadelphia. The tracks, especially those along severe curves, also need to be adjusted and repaired so that trains can go at higher speeds.

Ridership is up to 31 million from 24 million in 2005. More people are taking the train. And while the rest of the world makes sure that rails are safe for their citizens, the Republicans here are at home are doing their best to not see that it fails, but insuring that it’s more dangerous to those who choose to travel by train.