Feds Suggest U.S. Control of Light-Rail Safety Rules

From MassTransitMag.com:

Feds Suggest U.S. Control of Light-Rail Safety Rules
By Joe Stephens and Lena H. Sun
The Virginian-Pilot(Norfolk, VA.)

WASHINGTON, DC – The Obama administration will propose that the federal government take over safety regulation of the nation's subway and light-rail systems, responding to what it says is haphazard and ineffective oversight by state agencies.

Under the proposal, the U.S. Department of Transportation would do for transit what it does for airlines and Amtrak: set and enforce federal regulations to ensure that millions of passengers get to their destinations safely. Administration officials said the plan will be presented in coming weeks to Congress, which must approve any change in the law.

The proposal would affect every subway and light-rail system in the country, including large systems in Washington, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Administration officials said they are responding to a growing number of collisions, derailments and worker fatalities on subways – and in particular to the fatal June 22 crash in the District of Columbia and failures in oversight that surfaced afterward.

"After the train crash, we were all sitting around here scratching our heads, saying, 'Hey, we've got to do something about this,' " Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in an interview. "And we discovered that there's not much we could do, because the law wouldn't allow us to do it."

A spokeswoman for D.C.'s Metro system, Lisa Farbstein, said the agency had not seen details of the proposal. "The bottom line is we welcome additional safety oversight with open arms," she said.

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