Schumer: This Week's Amtrak Outage Shows Rail Infrastructure Problem Akin to Northeast Power Grid During Blackout, Demands Outside Investigation

SCHUMER: THIS WEEK'S AMTRAK OUTAGE SHOWS RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE PROBLEM AKIN TO NORTHEAST POWER GRID DURING BLACKOUT, DEMANDS OUTSIDE INVESTIGATION

Amtrak Unable to Provide Answers on What Went Wrong, Why Entire Electrical Grid Went Down When Only A Fraction Should Have Been Affected

Schumer Calls for DOT to Appoint Panel of Independent Experts to Examine Viability of Electrical System in Northeast Corridor

In light of this week's blackout on Amtrak that left thousands of people stranded in cramped train cars for hours, today U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called for the Department of Transportation to appoint an independent panel of experts to examine the electrical system in the Northeast corridor. Schumer, a longtime defender of Amtrak compared the domino effect present in Amtrak's Northeast corridor outage to the domino effect that led to the failure of the power grid during the blackout of 2003. Amtrak has been unable to pinpoint what specifically went wrong and says that it may take weeks to ascertain what the genesis of the outage was.

"Its time to get to the bottom of what ails Amtrak," Schumer said. "It is unacceptable that the power could shut down at the height of rush hour, strand thousands of people and no one can offer an explanation. It is clear that we need outside experts to step in and fix what's broken."

The massive disruption of service on Thursday morning, the largest since the blackout of summer 2003, stranded thousands of commuters along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which stretches from Boston to Washington. The outage resulted from an electrical failure that moved through the system in minutes. However, it remains unclear, even to Amtrak, what caused the initial circuit to trip. At 7:55 AM, an abnormality tripped two circuit breakers at an Amtrak substation in Maryland. These occurrences, though fairly common, are usually localized incidents because the infrastructure has built in protections to that shield the whole service from being disrupted. If one substation goes down, the others should continue to operate - not set off a chain reaction.

The tripped circuit breakers in Maryland were followed seconds later by two additional breakers tripped at a Sunnyside, Queens substation. Trains kept going until 8:02 am, when four breakers located at a substation outside of Philadelphia cut electricity. As circuit breakers opened along the 225 miles of track and unleashed a widely fluctuating level of power that threatened to overheat the system's components, concerned Amtrak operators shut down the system's power source before any permanent damage could occur.

At the worst point of the outage, trains came to a standstill along a 225 mile stretch of Amtrak's busiest tracks. Amtrak officials reported that the outage affected 4,205 of its passengers. The situation was even worse for the various regional rail systems that use Amtrak's lines. Over 30,000 New Jersey Transit passengers were affected along with 20 SEPTA trains in Pennsylvania and 8 MRAC trains in Maryland. Amtrak officials estimate 52,000 people were effect

Schumer today said he feared that this might happen again if it the problem is not immediately identified and fixed.

To combat this threat Schumer today called for the U.S. Department of Transportation to appoint an independent blue ribbon panel of experts to examine the electrical system and report back within six months with recommendations for improvement. Schumer said the task force would function similarly to the joint Canadian U.S. task force led by the Department of Energy after the blackout of 2003 and called for the panel to include respected railroad and electrical, engineers, outside rail experts, and some of the electrical experts that sat on the 2003 panel.

In the past year Amtrak has faced a spate of problems. In April of 2005 it cancelled service on its high speed Acela trains because of a brake problem, effecting 10,000 passengers. They did not restore service until September of that year. In November of 2005 Amtrak received harsh criticism from the Government Accountability Office which said that Amtrak needs to keep a closer eye on its financials and its performance. In November Amtrak fired their President, David Gunn and has yet to replace him. Schumer has been critical of the Amtrak board which has three of its seven seats vacant. He has called on the administration to fill those seats with transportation professionals immediately. Schumer has also been a chief voice in trying to get Amtrak full funding.

In its Fiscal Year 2007 budget request, the Administration only requested $900 million in federal subsidies for Amtrak, a 30 percent cut from last year, which the rail corporation year after year has said is the absolute minimum amount to keep them from shutting down. In recent years, the Administration has tried to reduce Amtrak's funding, proposing no federal subsidy for Amtrak in FY 2006, which Congress on a bi-partisan basis increased to more than $1.3 billion. The Administration is only requesting $500 million for capital improvements and would put the other $400 million in the hands of the Secretary of Transportation to dispense for various Amtrak routes and projects as he sees fit, leaving no operating subsidy directly for Amtrak. Last year, Amtrak received $780 million in capital improvement grants and $495 million in operating assistance.

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2006/PR171.Amtrak%20Outage.052806.html