Letter to the Hon. John Thune, and the Hon. Bill Nelson - Calls for Oversight Hearing on Amtrak, Rail Safety in Aftermath of Recent Derailment Tragedy

Letter

Dear Chairman Thune and Ranking Member Nelson,

I am writing to request that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hold an oversight hearing on current Amtrak safety standards and training procedures, and the state of federal rail safety regulation as soon as possible when Congress returns in the new year. Following the recent derailment incident in DuPont, Washington, which claimed 3 lives and injured more than 70 people, the traveling public needs to know that Amtrak and its regulator, the Federal Railroad Administration, are doing all they can to protect the safety of passengers who use this vital piece of our transportation infrastructure.

In the last decade alone, train accidents in the United States have taken the lives of dozens of passengers. In 2008, a commuter train sped through a red signal and crashed headlong into a freight train in Chatsworth, California. In New York, a Metro North commuter train derailed in the Bronx in 2013, while another crashed along the Harlem line in February of 2015. Later in 2015, an Amtrak Northeast Regional train derailed in Philadelphia. These events took the lives of 46 people and injured more than 450. Heartbreaking events like these serve as all too frequent reminders that train safety must be a priority issue for our Committee.

Passenger and freight railways remain a critical part of the nation's transportation network. Millions of Americans depend on rail service each day, and businesses in every corner of our country depend on freight rail to keep commerce running. Therefore, the alarming rate of incidents on our rails is cause for tremendous concern. We should be doing everything in our power to address train safety issues as quickly as possible in order to prevent similar accidents in the future.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

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