Rail safety overhaul bill easily passes House (

[Omaha Steve]

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=135002&ran=223407

By GREGORY RICHARDS, The Virginian-Pilot
© October 19, 2007

A sweeping rail safety bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives limits the amount of time rail workers can spend on the job to reduce fatigue and bans the "camp cars" used by Norfolk Southern Corp. to house some traveling track-maintenance crews.

The Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act, approved 377-38 Wednesday evening, would change the way Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern and other U.S. railroads operate, should it become law.


Overturned Norfolk Southern rail cars, above, are strewn along the ground in Graniteville, S.C., in January 2005. Nine people died and more than 250 were sickened after a freight train carrying toxic chlorine crashed into a parked locomotive. Human error caused the accident. THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT FILE PHOTO


The bill also reorganizes the Federal Railroad Administration, the nation's rail safety watchdog, into the Federal Railroad Safety Administration, and nearly doubles the number of safety inspectors.

Additionally, it requires automatic devices to show train crews the position of switches ahead on the track in so-called "dark territories" without signals. And it mandates that big railroads install electronic locomotive control systems to improve safety.

Such provisions are intended to prevent accidents like the violent January 2005 collision of two Norfolk Southern trains in Graniteville, S.C. An improperly set switch allowed one train to run into a parked locomotive. The impact ruptured a tank car, allowing toxic chlorine gas to escape. Nine people were killed, including a train engineer.

"Our rail members, the engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way workers who ensure that this nation's rail system runs safely, won a major victory" with the bill's passage, said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in a news release.

FULL stroy at link.