WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, submitted for the record the following prepared remarks at today’s “Enhancing our Rail Safety: Current Challenges for Passenger and Freight Rail” Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security Subcommittee hearing:

Thank you Senator Blumenthal, and Senator Blunt for holding this important hearing and I am glad that Senators Hoeven and Heitkamp are able to join us today to underscore their first-hand perspective when it comes to increased domestic oil and gas production from their home state and the recent accident that occurred there.

The topic of this hearing is particularly timely, as we’ve seen several high-profile accidents in recent months involving both freight and passenger railroads, some of which have sadly resulted in the loss of life and injuries to rail passengers.

As a senator from South Dakota, I am particularly interested in the safety issues involved in transporting crude oil from the Bakken region, and I am encouraged to see railroads, the oil industry, and the various federal safety agencies working together on this issue – including improvements when it comes to tank car safety to protect against releases of commodities that are increasingly moved via the second safest mode of bulk transportation.

I am also interested in hearing from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Association of American Railroads on the work that is being done to speed up the approval process for the communications towers that railroads must install to fully implement Positive Train Control (PTC), which can certainly assist in reducing the incidence of some, but not all, rail accidents.

While I agree that PTC is an important safety technology that railroads should work to install as quickly as possible, I worry that the current statutory deadline of December 2015 is unrealistic for most passenger and freight railroads. I think this is especially true in light of some of the delays that have occurred at the FCC that we will hear more about today. 

Along with Senators Blunt, McCaskill, and Pryor I have introduced legislation, which is supported by other members of this committee, to extend the 2015 deadline in order to allow the railroads a realistic timeframe for full implementation. There are now 12 bipartisan co-sponsors of this legislation, and I hope that our committee will consider this bill in the coming months.

At the end of the day, we have a shared interest in seeing PTC work as intended, and avoiding the unintended consequences of an unworkable timetable that could weaken the overall safety of our rail network. We all want PTC done right, and I appreciate the perspectives of our witnesses on how we can work together to make that happen.  

###