Railroaded

Casey Jones (1863-1900), Lokomotivführer.

Case of both sides posturing in Washington after tragedy strikes? That's kind of how the Times sees it:

As investigators picked through the rubble on Wednesday morning, Democratic lawmakers in Washington angrily demanded an increase in Amtrak funding, calling Tuesday night’s accident a result of congressional failure to support the rail system. Republicans refused, defeating the request in a morning committee hearing and accusing Democrats of using a tragedy for political reasons.

“It was beneath you,” Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho, snapped at a Democratic colleague after the funding increase was defeated in a 30-to-21 vote.

Because after all, what the Democrats were asking for, a 0.2% increase to the Republican proposal for Amtrak's budget, wasn't something that would have prevented the derailing of Northeast Regional Train no. 188 in Philadelphia, right?

Indeed, it doesn't seem on the face of it to be a lack of money that left that curve unprotected by the positive train control system that would—not might—have prevented the accident. Amtrak has been installing it, has a budget, and expects to be finished by the end of the year; they just hadn't gotten to that spot yet.

However, outside Congress:

Edward G. Rendell, the Democratic former governor of Pennsylvania, lashed out at Republican lawmakers on Wednesday for refusing to increase Amtrak funding. He said the requested increase of $251 million over the Republican budget of $1.14 billion [actually not an increase but a restoration of current funding] could significantly improve safety by upgrading tracks and installing positive train control systems in the busiest part of the system.

“It is absolutely stunning to me,” Mr. Rendell said of the funding vote. “It shows that ideology trumps reality, and it shows that cowardice reigns in Washington..."

The busiest part of the system is, precisely, the section between New York and Philadelphia, where the accident occurred, and the reason it's taking longer to install the PTC there seems to be precisely that busyness (among other things, as we learned on NPR this morning, electronic signalling issues in an area that is a soup of competing radio waves). Rendell is right, more money would help.

And it's not just that: there's another issue that you have to read the Times story very carefully to grasp. It's not just Amtrak that uses these tracks but very profitable privately owned freight lines as well, and they need to install PTC as well, and they're balking, asking Congress to move the deadline from 2015 to 2020. The next round of the fight in the House is when the Republicans give them what they want and ensure that more accidents like Tuesday's will happen over the next five years, to gratify corporate greed. That's the subtext to yesterday's snapping, and no, both sides don't do it.
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