[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         POSITIVE TRAIN CONTROL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Quigley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, Mark Twain once said that ``action speaks 
louder than words but not nearly as often.''
  Since last week's tragic Amtrak accident, we have heard plenty of 
words about the need for stronger rail safety measures and investments 
in our infrastructure, but it is time for Congress to back up these 
words with action. It is time for Congress to put its money where its 
mouth is.
  We know how to prevent tragic accidents like the one that happened on 
Amtrak last week. We even mandated new technology called positive train 
control that would have prevented it. But what Congress has refused to 
do is to pay to actually get it done.
  Positive train control is a game-changer for rail safety. The 
technology would have likely prevented 140 train accidents that have 
caused more than 280 deaths and $300 million in property damage since 
1969. But this safety technology is also incredibly complex and 
expensive to implement. We have mandated technology that is expected to 
cost billions, and we are forcing the Nation's railroads to foot the 
entire bill.
  Much of this last week's focus has been on Amtrak, but despite last 
week's accident, Amtrak is actually on target to implement positive 
train control by the end of the year.
  For the already cash-strapped commuter railroads around the country, 
it is a completely different story. For them, Congress' refusal to fund 
positive train control has pretty much stopped implementation in its 
tracks. Expected to cost commuter railroads nearly $3.5 billion, it is 
no wonder that over 70 percent of commuter railroads won't achieve 
positive train control implementation before this year's deadline.
  Our commuter railroads are integral to the daily commute of millions 
of Americans. In fact, Amtrak's annual ridership pales in comparison to 
our Nation's commuter railroads. While Amtrak carries 30 million riders 
a year, commuter railroads carry close to 500 million.
  In the Chicago area alone, Metra's ridership last year was over 80 
million. With numbers like that, how can Congress justify mandating a 
policy that they know commuter railroads simply cannot afford while 
providing very little funding to help them do it?
  This unfunded mandate is forcing commuter rails to sacrifice other 
investments that are crucial to railroad safety and efficiency. Fifty 
percent of commuter railroads are currently deferring other capital 
investments to implement positive train control.
  And what happens when the commuters aren't able to implement this 
technology before the end of this year? They get penalized--fined. 
Instead of giving money to the commuters to pay for PTC, the Federal 
Government is actually going to end up collecting money from them for 
not being able to afford to do so.
  For good reason, Congress mandated incredibly important and 
incredibly expensive new technology. But it has amounted to a lot of 
words and very little action.
  The same 2008 law that mandated PTC also authorized $50 million a 
year in rail safety technology grants to help Amtrak and commuter 
railroads pay for this implementation, but in the 7 years since the law 
was passed, Congress has only appropriated funding once.
  Mr. Speaker, $50 million a year wasn't enough then, and it is sure 
not enough now. That is why I introduced a bill with the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) in March to reauthorize PTC funding at $200 
million a year.
  It is time for Congress to finish what it started. It is time for 
Congress to get serious about investing in our Nation's transportation 
infrastructure. And it is time for Congress to help our commuter 
railroads implement positive train control and prevent the kind of 
tragedies that we saw on Amtrak last week.

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