campaigns. on capitol hill, at 2:00 eastern, the house discusses health care and senate nominations at 3:00 o'clock eastern. that will include the consumer product safety commission. a vote for that nomination expected at 5:30 today. you can watch the senate live on c-span 2 and the house live on c-span. next, rob batory, he briefed members on the subcommittee on efforts to improve the commuter and regional rail line safety. this is about an hour and a half.

this hearing will come to order. good afternoon. let me begin by apologizing to our witnesses. we are in the midst of two roll call votes. i've cast the first one, the ranking member senator jack reed is voting right now. we're going to try to keep

switching back and forth. obviously, these votes were not scheduled at the time we scheduled this hearing. that's the way the senate is, but we are going to proceed. today, our subcommittee is holding an oversight hearing on the department of transportation's rail safety programs. i am very pleased that i will be joined by senator jack reed, the subcommittee's invaluable ranking member. i also want to welcome our panel of distinguished witnesses. we are joined today by ron batory, the administrator of the federal railroad administration. steven gardner, the vice president and chief commercial officer of amtrak. patricia quinn, the executive director of the northern new england passenger rail authority. and art leahy, the ceo of metrolink commuter rail in

southern california. the issue of railroad safety has received heightened attention recently, due to several disturbing accidents. last december, in the amtrak train derailed in dupont, washington, killing three people and injuring 60. on the inaugural run of a new line. the engineer was speeding on a curved track nearly 50 miles per hour above the speed limit. in january, closer to home, members of congress were involved in a highway railroad-grade crossing crash. witnesses report that a truck entered the crossing when the gates were down. unfortunately, this type of accident occurred all too frequently. in february, another amtrak

train collided with a sitting freight train in south carolina because it was diverted on to a track that hsh taken out of service. these three accidents illustrate the variety of challenges we face in improving the safety of the railroad. the rail industry safety record has improved in some areas with the number of derailments declining by 35% since 2008, despite increasing service levels. last year, however, the number of accidents and incidents actually increased compared to 2016. among these incidents were several serious collisions that led to fatalities that in some cases could have been avoided with the use of proven technology such as positive

train control, or ptc, as well as improvements to the safety culture through better training. i'm all too aware of one such incident in loch magenta, in quebec in canada, in 2013 which resulted in the death of 47 residents, just 30 miles from the main border. in 2014, our subcommittee held a hearing on the lac magenta accident. as a result, the rail increased the number of railroad inspects fra. and to improve the safety culture within the industry. and mandated the phaseout of old tank cars that were susceptible

to puncture and leakage upon derailment. our railcars and communities are safety today because of that. prior to lac magenta, the horrific accident in 2008 which resulted in 25 deaths led congress to mandate ptc for most class 1 and passenger rail service. ptc technology, while challenging to implement, has demonstrated that it can prevent major crashes and incidents caused by human error. ptc likely would have prevented several recent accidents such as the one i mentioned in washington state. it is imperative for railroads to implement the safety system as soon as possible. in fact, congress has mandated

that all required railroads implement ptc by december 31st of this year, with an extension until 2020 for railroads that can demonstrate their system is fully functionable but may need additional testing. while most class 1 freight companies as well as amtrak are on schedule to meet the ptc deadline of december 31st, 2018, last month, the federal railroad association released the list of 14 railroads that are at risk of neither meeting the ptc deadline, nor satisfying the legal criteria to qualify for an extension, until december 31st of 2020. many of the railroads on this list are commuter or other publicly subsidized railroads.

amtrak has also recently highlighted several state supported and long-distance routes that are at risk of having service curtailed, due to a failure to install ptc forward. for the downeaster regional train in maine, it is essential that the massachusetts bay transportation authority, or mbta, fully implement positive train control. the massachusetts authority serves as the host railroad on a very small part of the downeaster route. and is responsible for the installation of ptc on a section of track betweening he hegaral and boston. fortunately, boston is now on base which will allow the

downeaster continue to offer uninterrupted service between maine and boston. recognizing the financial cost associated with ptc deployment, our subcommittee has provided funding over the last three years, including up to 593 million in the fiscal year 2018 funding bill. with the ptc deadline just months away, however, it has taken until this week for the department to make funding available to potential applicants. when this funding is it will focus on both freight and commuter railroads that are most challenged in meeting the deadlines. it is important to note that while ptc is creditical to

preventing rail travel, it cannot provide access. on the railroad grade crossing an occurrence that is unfortunately far too common. almost 250 people died in similar highway rail grade crossing collisions last year. and when combined with trespasser fatalities, they contributed to 96% of all rail-related deaths last year. in an effort to address these problems, this committee has provided funding to the department of transportation for a media campaign to increase awareness of highway rail grade crossings. we somehow have to get across the message that you cannot beat the train.

by violating the rail crossings. earlier this year, the department launched these efforts, and i look forward to hearing from the administrator on how these funds will be used. and what metrics will be applied to determine their effectiveness. let me now turn to senator reed for his helping markings and apologize for starting before you got here with the permission of your staff, due to the votes that we have ongoing on the floor. >> well, thank you, chairman collins, not only for holding this important hearing but for your extraordinary leadership and your generosity and kindness to let me say a few words. we're here to hear a very important topic which is rail safety which touches every aspect of american life. and we are also responding to as chairman collins pointed out several high-profile rail

accidents over the past several months. some of which were positive train control preventible including tragic fatal accidents in washington and south carolina in addition to frequent highway trespassing deaths. beyond the headlines, the fra has been tracking concerning statistics regarding highway railway crossing and trespasser incidents. in 2017, 868 people died in rail-related accidents and incidents. with 245 of those occurring at highway railway crossing and 590 from trespassing incidents. both of those are higher than the 2016. in fact, sadly, a pedestrian was struck in rhode island just days ago and amazingly and thankfully survived. but this is a problem we must address. hour others, however, have not been

as important. this is the way to address this while providing assistance for implementation of project train control. we all recognize that the safety of rail systems are clearly linked to investment and oversight. i'm particularly proud of the rail adjustments we were able under the omnibus under senator collins' leadership. the automatic track inspection program and ptc oversight at the fra. in 2018, we provided $592 million for chrissy grants with 250 million set aside for ptc implementation. it was also important that we make commuter rail agencies available for that ptc funding since they had the greatest needs. unfortunately, the fra decided to issue an opportunity for only the million set aside for ptc and hold back the remaining $280

million chrissy funding in unnecessarily delaying projects. ptc is an eligible activity for the rests of the chrissy funding also. the decision would hold the majority of the chrissy funding ant grantees to delay critical infrastructure and investments. i'm disappointed by the decision to separate the ptc funds and strongly encourage the fra to award all of the funding we've provided quickly and thoughtfully, to address the safety and risk that we face as a nation. in 2018, we also fund amtrak at the highest level ever in the appropriations bill. we funded the state of good repair program at $250 million

the highest ever in a single appropriations as well. both of those are critical to updating and replacing central aspects in the northeast corridor which connects the area that produces 20% of the nation's gross net product. unfortunately, they were incorrectly labeled as local urban concerns when you're dealing with 20% of gross investor product and one of the major transportations is amtrak in the eastern corridor, it's not a local urban concern. these are not local projects. they are projects of national significance. and this administration is going a disservice to all americans along the coast with intentional bureaucratic delays. the department of transportation must do better as these projects move closer to construction. in some ways, congress has done

its part. now the administration needs to get down to work for railroads and agencies that need it. i look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses about their good state repair and safety practices. rail safety is an area where we have broad bipartisan agreement. as this subcommittee looks to 2019, your ideas and experience will help to inform our funding decision to make america's rail system safer and more efficient. but i'll speak for myself, we don't want to come together and appropriate significant money for real needs across this country and then see the money sit there. because will not do their job. thank you. >> thank you very much, senator reed. administrator batory, thank you for being here. >> thank you, chairman collins, ranking member reed. members of the subcommittee.

the opportunity to testify today to discuss rail safety is an honor. i come to my position as administrator of the federal administration with 45 years experience in the railroad industry, rising to become the president and chief operating officer of a significant freight rail carrier in the united states. throughout my career, i have been focused on continually improving safety performance. i bring the same unwavering perspective to my current position at the fra. railroads implementation of ptc systems is at the top of our agenda. as we approach critical deadlines, for railroads implementation of ptc systems, fra remains committed to working with railroads to ensure

implementation of this important rail safety technology in a timely manner. while railroads are making progress, most will need to request an alternative schedule that statute allow. under the direction of secretary cho, the fra is taking an approach to address the systems in the systems. in that regard, fra senior leadership met individually with executives of the each to be compliant 14 ra41 railroads ear this year. this was precedent setting since the enactment of the technology in 2008. along with the representative buyers representing the small boutique market which was also

present. during the fra's recent meetings, railroad commonly conveyed ongoing challenges. including three. demand and supply issues among a limited number of ptc system and vendors. ongoing technical and reliability issues with ptc's hardware and software. last, a realm of opportunity from both a host and tenant perspective. today, fra believes 12 railroads are at risk of deadline and failing to qualify for an alternative schedule. this assessment was based on railroads' self-reported progress through first quarter of this year. these ptc systems are in operation over 60% of the

required freight railroad route miles. passenger railroads, though, have made less progress which includes commuter rail as well as innercity rail. to date, less than 25% of the required route miles are in service. 14 railroads, though, have reported complete installation of all hardware necessary for ptc system implementation. and another 13 have reported 80% of the required hardware installed. since 2008, the funding provided by this committee has enabled the department to make available over $2.5 billion in grants and loans to assist with ptc implementation. this amount to nearly 20% of the $14 billion the consolidated

industry estimates are for the implementation of positive train control. i might also add that the majority of the $2.5 billion was directed towards commuter rail. in addition and a more recent note is $318 million awaiting award and application under chrissy. since this administration took office, rage roads have made progress with their ptc implementation. from quarter one of 2017, through quarter one of 2018, railroads have increased the total amount of installed ptc system hardware from 77% to 93%. this progress has enabled the physical operating both of ptc which was very, very important. at the on set of this

administration, ptc systems were in approximately 80% of the freight miles required under a system. and now increased to a percentage estimate in excess of 60%, as of march 31st of this year. on the innercity passenger and commuter railroads, there's been a much slower growth rate. this time last year, we were at 24%. this year, we're at only 25%. this progress in the freight sector, but the commitment shown in innercity passenger and commuter railroad is a testament to secretary cho's commitment to ensuring our nation's railroads are safe. additionally, it's a testament to the hard work and dedication of the men and women searching at fra.

although first charged with ptc mandate in october of 2008, the progress over the last few years shows that railroads have prioritized ptc and adhered secretary cho's safety charge of earlier this year concerning ptc. moving forward, fra will continue to support and facilitate railroad implementation of ptc technology by utilizing the tools afforded by congress. and providing extensive technical assistance and guidance to railroads and their suppliers. we remain vigilant in harnessing and leveraging all personnel, financial and other resources, available to help expedite railroad implementation efforts. we appreciate the subcommittee's support for our critical programs. and we welcome your continued partnership to advance rail safety with all of that said, i

sit here very honorable in front of you, look forward to listening to your concerns and answering your questions on railroad safety. >> thank you, mr. administrator. senator collins is going to the floor for the vote. when she returns, i'll go to the floor for my vote. your testimony, please. >> thank you, ranking member reed and my fellow witnesses. appreciate the opportunity to be here this afternoon and for the subcommittee to focus on safety. my name is stephen gardner, i'm amtrak's executive vice president and chief commercial officer. it's my pleasure to be here. as a subcommittee now, this has been a challenging fiscal year for amtrak, as we faced a serious accident, two accidents that you mentioned in your opening statement. these incidents have raised concerns internally and

externally about the safety of the company and passengers generally. i'm here to show you that we're tackling those concerns directly. while amtrak had begun to implement a number of strategies, we significantly expanded these efforts and strengthening our policy's training and operations to make sure they reflect to the highest degree of safety. leading this effort is our new chief safety officer ken highlander who is devoting himself to learning from the recent incidents. foremost amongst this duties is to lead the implementation and operation of a safety management system. used by industries like aviation, health care and energy, nsms is a proactive risk methodology that focuses systematically and cooperatively on identifying risks. adoption of this system follows the mtsb and consistent with the approach mandated by congress in

2008 and soon required by fra. we have all right started implementation. having completed a new safety system policy, instituted our single expansion initiative and route cause corrective action methodology. while trying to make good progress in the overall goal for fra for review this fall. the key aspect of sms is top promptly achief ptc implementation across our network. as we said before, and in light of the recent incidents, we believe ptc or ptc equivalent levels of safety must be standard for all and that this system will make the entire for communities. amtrak is restoring that across the deadline that we control and

working on that infrastructure. at presence, we believe most will have ptc and separational by the 2018 deadline. >> for the incidents where this is not the case, we expect all carriers under law and while others will not make enough to qualify. for those operating under an extension or an fra approved extension, amtrak is improving risk strategies for enhancing safety on a route-by-route basis to be sure that come january 1, we can provide a full level of safety. for example, our safety team has brought forth a process for the downeaster and the vermont area. our clear goal is to preserve services on these routes by using alternative methods to

mitigate known risks, therefore allowing to us make sure that our customers, your constituents are as safe on our rails as they would be on any other system. for those where rails may not achieve an alternative service. finally, we remain busy working with all of our tenant railroads while they work to make sure they have sufficiently ptc rolling stock for all services. before closing i want to thank the nmembers of this subcommitte and staff for passings the appropriations bill. your subcommittee has championed historic for the passenger rail. we hope that as you continue to work on the fy19 and fy 18 for

both amtrak and both will serve as the new baseline. thank you again for the opportunity to appear today. we're deeply admitted to strengthening the safety of our network and effectively stewarding the funds you provide us. we appreciate the feedback we received from the subcommittee and ranking member reed. and i look forward to answering any questions. >> thank you. miss queen. >> thank you, member reed and other members of the committee including senator collins for inviting me here today. i also would like to join my panel members here and thank you for passing the fy08 appropriations bill for quality efficient railroad. my name is patricia quinn.

we're a quasigovernment agency based in maine that was performed for the purpose -- in the late 1990s, for the purpose of restoring passenger rail to maine after a 30-year hiatus. those efforts were successful and since 2001, we worked in partnership for amtrak. as a little little background, the downeaster makes five round trips between portland and boston. three of those extend to brunswick. we operate over a route corridor that runs through three different states and serves 12 communities. we transport about 505,000 people a year, that i'm pretty proud of given the fact that our state as $1.2 million. since we started operating, we transported 700 million.

and a lot of economic development along the route. so it's very important to us. in addition to being the director, i also serve on a couple committees and organizations that i'd like to highlight today and are relevant to this conversation. the states for passenger rail coalition which is a membership organization in the state amtrak inner rail code. and representing 21 state agencies which managed 29 amtrak routes. those state-supported routes several nearly half of amtrak's ridership. we continue about $750 million in revenue to amtrak, both in terms of passenger revenue and state payments. state partners are heavily invested in their routes. and we invest heavily in our routes and that's why we appreciate the partnership and

funding. i cannot overstate the importance of a sustained and dedicated funding mechanisms to help us plan for investments and actually implement investments. that's my theme today, my theme is almost all the projects that we execute or implement has having to do with safety. whether it's a track program, signal or facilities, each one of these has a positive impact on service and safety. we believe safety is a multifaceted part of everything we do. as it relates to positive train control, as senator has talked about, is this a very big and important topic. the downeaster is unique. that part of our route is to be ptc compliant by the end of the year. and the rest isn't. the reason is the number of trains we operate. we operate ten trains a day.

so, the portion in maine and new hampshire, of which we appreciate is differents by the ptc, although the part is required to be ptc complaint. amtrak is working in partner nipp to make sure all of the pieces are an important place and they're not be interrupted downeaster service. seems to be going well and we're hopeful that it is. there's still a lot of unknowns for us. how it will work, once it's implemented being that part of the route is ptc and what isn't. and also what the ongoing costs are going to be, because once it's installed, that's going to have to be maintained. what i've been told, that's going to cost millions of dollars and that's probably going to come back to the

customer. and so we're the customer, so that's a concern for us. >> i do want to part of the line will not be ptc equipped. that does not mean it's not safe. we work continually and invest significantly in projects that contribute to the state of good repair of the railroad in which we work. there are many assets to safety. now, the amtrak has mentioned there was some risk of not operating trains if the line was not equipped with ptc. but i'm confident through the mechanism that was outlined by mr. gardner that you'll see that they're always open to enhancements but i think you'll find we will be able to operate without disruption to the downeast service. we're also considering operating a seasonal rail service to

rockland which is a 50-branch line owned by them. that's on doc territory. but again, looking through a protocol, looking at the specific characteristics of the railroad, i'm confident that we can work with amtrak in the state of maine to come up with mitigations to operate that service safely as well. now, while i can talk about the safety record that we have and the things that we do to improve safety and ensure the safety of our passengers, i can't much for motor riists and pedestrians wh has been talked about quite a lot today. since 2011, 12 of them associated with trespassers, six of them grade crossing violations. none of these the fault of the train, but in every circumstance, the head line was train hits pedestrian. train hits car. we need to cast a wide net and

broaden our safety focus and share responsibility not just with the railroad, but with the communities. with law enforcement and with motorists to come up with innovative techniquing that is multifaceted. trying to bring back to the point i was trying to convey, safety occurs at all overs. >> my testimony, i related to. when there are injures associated they'll find way to that those injuries don't occur and continue to occur. two specific injuries which the crew members actually work with local management and local communities to come up with solutions that are now deployed nationally, to make sure that there are guides on doors so

people don't get cut. and also improving boarding plates. which is the safety of the crew. so, in closing, i just want to reiterate, safety is part of everything we do and part of all of the project. we depend on funding on the projects. and appreciate those. on behalf of nepa, i thank you for your interest and engagement and for the tools that make you safe. thank you. i'm willing to answer any questions. >> thank you very much. >> mr. leahy. good arrange chairman collins and ranking member reed, thank you for having us here to scomphent on rail safety. metrolink is the first commuter railroad in the nation to have

operating ptc. metrolink is all -- regional provider. travels more than 400 miles of track. i should note we operate out west which is the second largest growing corridor. our free aways in southern california are at capacity. our population is still growing and splitting out. the only way to relieve traffic or congestion in southern california is getting cars off the freeway, and metrolink does that. our folks take the train better than driving. we've done a number of things at metrolink the past couple years to improve safety. and we're facing this. and cards that were implemented

year ago. our memory was triggered by a tragedy between 2008. the day of that accident, the board of metro and metrolink and others were at the scene. they were there all night long. they saw the horrible consequences and it was that which led to the unfielding objective of southern -- >> we have invested $220 million to develop and install tests and certify the pte system. we've had some federal help from a number of agencies, fra and others and we appreciate that, but it's been a great deal of dispense to get where we are today. we're about 95% compliant with

ptc. we're continuing testing. and we started initial testing. inoperable ability. we appreciate that amtrak is trying to get it done. and as pell. >> i should note for you, as was just said, that ptc stock doesn't continue without having to operate it safely. i should note that we expect you're on going costs to be ten million a year doing the activities that i just mentioned. i would note to you in addition to those sorts of accidents as it's been referenced, we've had terrible accidents involving

automobile, trucks. pedestrians. i should note that we have an increasing and amtrak in southern california. and that enjoneses the chance of that occur. so these are the issues. i should know that metrolink throughout southern california and we also work where it is to get our trains out. we dispatch about 300 trains a bay from ports of l.a. and long leach, as you know, the busiest sports context in the united states. so, we're very pleased to be doing that. we have recently been working with the state of california for a system called score. southern california optimized rail association. which maskly seeking to that that for the area. we jut received a funding of

$1.2 million to get this done. all through the state and the six counties i just mentioned we appreciate the help from this committee, our senates and the department of transportation. we all share these unique challenging of trying to run a railroad until corridors where they're oftentimes not fully controlled. but we're going to keep at it until we do chief the safety that you all had problems madam chair, thank you for including metrolink in this hearing. thank you. >> well, first off, mr. leahy, congratulations to you for making such progress and such an effort in response to the crash that would have been prevented by ptc. i put up a chart of some of the crashes where lives would have been saved if ptc had been

implemented. and the effort you've made is truly commendable. >> thank you. >> mr. batory, i was alarmed to hear you say today, and i think this is accurate that fewer an 25% of passenger miles are covered by ptc. did i understand you correctly? >> yes, chairman, did you understand me correctly, because there is a difference in the criteria, in so far as the prerequisites that had to be fulfilled in so far as satisfying the 12, 31-18 deadline. and by 123118, amtrak must do the same. and amtrak primarily has its ownership, other than that in michigan, over on the northeast

corridor. every place else they operate, they operate as that. but when you get into the commuter railroads it's relevant demonstration that must be shown. that is any particular line sight they propose. if ra, and fra continues for that revenue. that could be five miles or 25 miles. that gets them past the 2018 deadline so long as all of their equipment is up and running. i should say, up and installed. >> and it might need additional tests? >> and running where the revenue demonstration is. >> right. you mentioned that you've done extensive outreach and your staff have, to all of the relevant railroads and that there were three general issues that came up as obstacles.

you mentioned demand and supply, the host tenant issue. the reliability issue in testing. but that doesn't tell us why some, such as mr. leahy's railroads have made so much progress and others have not. since, presumably all of those had those challenges in your testimony. can you give us insight by there's such a variation among passenger railroads in particular? >> yes, let me -- in respect to time, i'll call it the ten-year journey, 2008 to 2018. and we know we had another statute that came about in 2015 that superseded in part what was set forth in 2008.

what we have found among the 41 to-be compliant railroads is the majority of the issues resided among the commuter railroads. there are four issues, though, i'd like to bring to light to this committee. the first issue was the development or the technology, that intellectual property associated with that technology. the equipment that needed to be developed and the writing of the nexts which was first and foremost, so that much of the estimate could be developed properly to fully the operation. that itself led to a two had year wind of two to three years, beyond 2008. and it continues to evolve today, as we, if you will, iron out the wrinkles associated with the evolving technology. because none of this is plug and

play equipment. the second item i'd like to bring up, and it was very obvious among the commuter railroads. and it has nothing to do with the quality of leadership. it has to do with the quantity of the leadership. in so far as change. over this ten-year period, if you look at these commuter railroads and recognize the amount of change in the leadership chairs, both at the board of directors level, as well as in the senior leadership level there was a considerable amount of change in comparison to what has transpired in other sectors of the railroad industry. leadership, sustained leadership, to be committed to this statute of 2008 and 2015 is paramount. and that's what we have seen among the class 1 railroad community. as well as some unique commuter agencies such as metrolink. such as septa, which are testaments to what i'm sharing with you right now. in fact, when we start our

face-to-face, one-on-one meetings with these entity, we deliberately reached out to what we termed the poster children of ptc. and that was metrolink was our first meeting, because we wanted to know the most we could find out about the best. followed by burlington order and santa fe, based on what they reported they too, were a leader among the class 1. there was also an issue concerning money. not that anyone wouldn't accept a check coming into the offices, but there were only 22 entities of the 41 to-be compliant railroads that said they did not have money to fulfill their obligation to peopletc. one was in new mexico, the other one was in southern california. they were both unique circumstances. but we think what's going on right now with the most recent

no fault process is the one that was issued the first quarter of this year. we might see a positive resolution to both of them. the last one i want to talk about is the demand capacity issue in this boutique supply industry. what was very interesting, after we sat down again for the first time since the original statute in 2008, with the supply industry, we sat with ten leading suppliers. we found out that te10% of the to-be compliant railroads engaged prior to 2008. there was roughly 47% that engaged the supply industry up to 2014. there was another 40 plus percent that had done nothing in the way of engagement of the supply industry until 2014 and '15. so, as a result, you have this

boutique supply industry, trying to provide customized technology to each and every railroad. and they really have suffered an avalanche of demand since 2015. >> thank you. senator reed. >> well, thank you, chairman collins. and mr. batory, we noted that the notice of funding opportunity for the entirety of the chrissy funds for 2017 and 2018, was completed ready to go out the door. but then yesterday, we were a bit disappointed when we just found out that the $215 million for ptc was announced. why is that? >> well, during -- let me segregate it, senator reed, this way. there was 68 million that was announced during first quarter of this year, which is fy17

which will be coming due for consideration and awarding next month. and then as of this week, we issued the $250 million that was carved out of the total chrissy, that was ptc specific. and rather than follow the traditional, 90-day application period, we reduced it to 45 because time of the essence and there has to be a sense of urgency. so, in addition to that we have already embarked with the short line so, regional railroad and short lines, as well as that of apta, where we have asked them to host webinars with their entire memberships. now webinars are not knew to the fra. but what is new, where fra has

reached out to association for monies available to ptc, not only give clarity to that membership of what's available. that's their questions with solid answering. and split their subscription to this valuable money. it's very, very important to get this accomplished within a reasonable period of time. i currently know of 12 at-risk railroads. we have reduced it by 20%, since fourth quarter of last year, that need this money for on board equipment, wayside equipment and some back office equipment. and in so far as carving it out of the system, it seems the upmost priority in our lives if you rode the cornerstone or the keystone, it permeates down,

doesn't change any at fra. and then when we get into areas of priorities you have subsets of priorities. and ptc is first and foremost -- >> let me pause right there, should you have allocated more than $250 million to ptc? >> there's $318 million. >> could you have allocated more in addition to what you've allocated? could you? >> chrissy allows you -- >> you could have done the whole thing for ptc if you wanted to. the manager of ptc was $215, the minimum, which you did. the need is i suspect, much greater than $215 million. and yet you've put that aside, we don't know when it is going to be no load. and when it is no load, you don't know what you're going to do. if ptc is the most important issue why didn't we go ahead at least with ptc put as much money

as you thought? >> that's not to say -- >> you could have done it yesterday. so, you decided that ptc was important, but not important enough to put more than $250 million to it. >> ptc is at the top of our priority. and the amount of applicants we get will determine whether or not the amount of money will suffice the need. >> thank you. miss quinn, how is your rating doing with ptc? >> only a portion of the quarter that's in the state of massachusetts is required to be ptc complaint. and according to my colleagues at amtrak, they believe that it will be able to meet the deadline without interruption to service. >> what about other railroads that you operate with mr. gardner, in terms of ptc? is there a significant aware of

money or are they aware it might be available, or do they need a webinar? >> thank you, senator reed. i think there is clearly room for sufficient investment in p c krchc implementations including small railroads. i'm not going to be able to give you how much. certainly, funding provides as you said a broad opportunity for safety investments. and we've reached out for partners with miss quinn. to go after those investments so we can improve our system and we're anxious to do that as we can. >> for mr. gardner, it's a safety concern for amtrak operations. you c can you give us any examples? and there's also, i think, $275

million that's waiting to be dispersed by fra for those programs, is that correct? >> that's correct. >> can you give us some examples of how critical this, is your operation? >> absolutely. as you mentioned, senator, there's a very significant backlog of repair investments needed across the northeast corridor. in fact, a lot of the networks that we serve. the northeast corridor is the most dramatic example of this. and safety and repair is vital to the operation of the railroad and arguably, its marketability. so, we need assets that are within useful life and good condition because when we don't, we have unplanned enter sup ene. so, getting access to the dollars that you appropriated is going to be very important. i know, i'm sure that's a heyl

priority for all of us. and we're working actively to find partnerships amongst ourselves in the commuter rails that use the northeast corridors so we can go after these funds and put them to good use. >> thank you. >> miss quinn, you mentioned that you're confidence that the massachusetts bay rail authority will do its part not to interrupt service for the downeaster, and that is good news and my understanding as well. you also mentioned, however, that there are ongoing costs related to the maintenance of the ptc system. is it clear who will be responsible for those ongoing costs? is it the host railroad, or is it the tenant.

>> thank you for the question, senator collins. actually, i'm not sure yet. the agreement that we have is that don't charge am tratrak for operating maintenance and operating costs online. the maintenance and operating costs as mentioned by mr. leahy, i also know there will be additional costs related to pan am, and they will be equipped with locomotives, and there will be a tie in and they dispatch part of the line. i don't think we have gotten to the point of identifying what specifically the costs are. and also, you know, other costs

like re -- but with a smaller resources in terms of staffing. the reallocation of those to focus on ptc has been kind of an operating costs for us. i think going forward, i think we have some questions and concerns about, again, the interinter interoperatability. we'll probably be in a much better place 18 months from now to answering those questions than i am today. >> that's something we'll have to keep an eye on. mr. gardner, you mentioned that amtrak has committed to improving the safety of all routes, regardless of the ptc mandate. what specific safety

improvements is amtrak contemplating for the down easter? >> thank you, chairman collins. we're looking at really a process, a risk assessment process that we're applying to all of the routes that we believe an extension will be granted or that have exemptions to the ptc requirements. in fact we just completed the first part of the amtrak service for eastern vermont, and this allows us to look at all the different risks that exist on an individual segment of railroad, you have an individualized traffic control system in place, that creates a series of safety mitigations that are helpful to that route, other routes don't have signal systems. and so we look at each of these instances, come up with a series of both operating practices and investments that we can then seek to apply to the routes so

that we can maintain the service levels, which is absolutely our goal and do that in a way that has same level of safety that -- for your constituents in maine that we have anywhere across our network. so we will have those analysises under ta undertaken over the spring and e the spring and summer. and at the conclusion we'll be rolling out those mitigations. and we'll be looking at those dedications of funds of fy-18. some of it may not cost much in the way of investment, but we will make sure that we have appropriate mitigations. >> thank you very much chairman collins, i very much appreciate you holding this hearing today, and ranking member reed. as the chairman mentioned, the

amtrak derailed near dupont, washington, and that tragic accident killed two passengers and injured 70 people who were either on the train or in their vehicles on the road below. that images of that wreck were just haunting and we know the ntsb investigation is ongoing. the preliminary report indicates that positive train control would have prevented this terrible accident. but this is, as you know, just the most recent case in which ptc would have prevented deaths and injuries and it leads to ask today, how we, congress and this administration can do more and do everything we can to prevent future accidents and make sure that families don't get that horrific phone call that families in my district got. so i am really deeply troubled

with the federal railroad administration assessment that shows 12 out of the 41 commuter railroads required to implement ptc are at risk of missing the december 2018 deadline and failing to implement an updated schedule. i want to know specifically what you are doing to work with the railroads, with amtrak, with commuter railroads to make sure they implement ptc and you know in your -- enforcement actions are still ongoing, we are less than seven months away from this deadline, when will we make a decision so that railroads will know there's consequences to meet that ptc deadline? >> thank you, senator.

let me address the first part of your statement which was the accident itself. with amtrak train 501. it was a most disheartening experience that i have shared since my retirement from the railroad industry when i saw that devastation. when i started reading and learning more of the facts that were forthcoming, it was obvious that we had a human failure that day. >> uh-huh. >> ptc would have prevented that human failure. because with ptc, it would have recognized that permanent speed restriction of 30 miles an hour and that train would have slowed automatically had the engineer not done it himself.

so all that said, ptc would have prevented it. as far as what we are doing today and what we have done thus far with the railroads, in trying to move the needle, not among all 41 railroads, including the 12 we have just identified that are at risk, in addition to the face-to-face meetings, we are now in respect to their time, embarking on next week, having individual lengthy conference calls to eliminate the travel with each of the 12 railroads, their leadership to find out exactly what has been accomplished since their first quarter report, what needs to be accomplished in order to satisfy the prerequisites of 2018 so that we can ascertain what we

can do to help foster and fac e facilitate a successful resolve in meeting the prerequisites. we intend to continue during third quarter and fourth quarter after those calls are completed to meet with those railroads individually, everybody that's at risk, face-to-face, not less than once a month, you might ask yourself, what's going on during the rest of the month? there's tactical dialogue going on among the 180 some railroad inspectors we have along the signal corps. in relation to the violations and the social penalties that come along with those violations. so far the agency has assessed those violations and fines.

those violations that we assessed and associated fines were not that of the maximum amount. what i have advocated for the secretary and the office of secretary staff, as well as fra, going forward, we should do nothing less than the maximum, ptc is never going to end once it's installed, it's a living system. and you have to get people to comply with what the administrative prerequisites are with the main ptc, you can then administer and monitor the -- but it's critical that people do what they're supposed to do such as their safety plans and their implementation plans. >> which i have a question, if you will indulge me. let me ask mr. gardner a question with respect to

training, in my understanding, the training is a serious concern, they outlined that employers were concerned that engineers had piled into a single locomotive car to run the training as a group. and conductors were located in the ba the -- unwilling to answer questions about key characteristics on the route and safety starts with training. mr. gardner, it clearly was inadequate, what are we doing about that? >> thank you, senator murray, we -- not getting into the specifics of the incident given the ntsb investigation, but i can say we very significantly reshaped our training efforts for qualifications for new routes and routes that have undertaken any kind of change in their characteristics. we have created a very specific

process to ensure both that we have adequate review of all of the conditions on the either new route or changed route and that we have a review process to determine exactly the level of training, the number of qualification runs and the type of runs that will be made and have also instituted a process to ensure that engineers and conductors who are qualified are then quickly checked to ensure their fl their flew wen si and competency of the route. and we have a much higher level of qualifications to ensure that every time we operate on a new route that it's done so with the utmost level of safety. >> i would just ask that the administration get back with this committee on whether they have reviewed the dratraining programs and what their solutions are to this.

>> we wi-- thank you for being here, metro link has been a model in terms of ptc, and i can't think of anyone better to ask about the big challenges that you face in relation to weather systems and the advice you have going through this process. >> it was a very difficult process, we started early on, but it was new technology, it was being developed real time with us, with the contractors, we had to do a great deal of troubleshooting and training and retesting and validating. it took a great deal of time. my recommendation would be we should start as soon as possible because you're going to confront unique challenges. i am pleased that we would help any railroad in the country by sharing our experiences and

bringing our people to bear on them. we have been involved in the trade association in that and will assist anyone who would like us to do so. >> part of getting started immediately is being aware that there's federal funding available, i would presume, that's a key factor. that might not be the decisive factor, but without that the availability of federal funding, is very difficult. is that fair? >> well, in los angeles, we were 80% locally funded, so, you know, we wish there had been more money available back then, but it was not the case obviously, we all know if there's money available to do things that you need to do, then you ought to go try to get the money. >> i think that's probably true most any place. mr. quinn, you have great experience operating commuter lines and as we all know, your line runs to boyston to connect to the providence train. >> that's very important.

>> it is very important. you've been operating state supported amtrak route, you worked out an agreement with amtrak to share the cost of operation, you've been leading the discussion for many years about transportation as you have indicated. the fy-18 budget has asked amtrak to put more skin in the game. is that something you think you can do? >> i can speak of behalf of my state colleagues and say we have got quite a bit of skin in the game already. states contribute significantly to amtrak. as i stated in my opening statements, we contribute about $750 million a year to operating expenses. out of that the states do pay 100 percent of the out of pocket costs, that's fuel and railroad costs, we also pay 100% of route costs, which you might think of as kind of the avoidable costs

of our routes and we share significantly $700 million a area to support shared systems that amtrak uses to support our entire network, those include facilities statements, reservations and technology, insurance, marketing and crew support. it's a connected system, and it's all taxpayer dollars, states are already con trastrai in terms of what we contribute and most of our bills have gone up significantly, ours has gone up a couple million dollars a year. so i think we need to work with act track amtrak to finds ways to be more innovative and increase efficiency. doing some things like we do in the down east service, our local

communities support us along our route. so i think states are willing to invest if there's a value, but just creating a void and having us put money into it it would be hard for us back home to justify that to the -- on the state level, our stake holders. and i think it could be catastrophic for the industry. if the state supported routes subsequently go away, you're going to see not a decrease of amtrak need on behalf of amtrak, i know when amtrak provides their financials, they say state supported routes cost about $60 million a year. i respectfully disagree with that, and say that really, based on the factors i said before, contribute significantly to these shared services and if the state supported routes started to go away, that the balance sheet for the down east corridor would differ from what it is now.

>> ms. quinn your last comment actually is a great segue to a question that i want to ask mr. gardner. mr. gardner, although it's a little bit off the focus of this hearing, i would be remiss if i did not tell you that i have heard from a number of amtrak passenger coalitions across the country that have voiced concerns about some of the policy changes that amtrak has recently embraced in order to generate savings. and i certainly understand the need for a businessm mentality o be brought to operations and congress has directed amtrak to work to make the entire national network financially more sustainable. but we have also said we want you to do that without compromising service. so the issue that i most want to

bring to your attention is these coalitions of passenger groups feel excluded from the process. and what i would like to get from you today is a commitment that you will increase your outreach to passenger coalitions before making fundamental changes in your operations and routes. >> yes, chairman collins, we do endeavor to do that and in fact we have, for a number of our changes have been in dialogue with the impacted parties, you concur that some of those policies have not been -- have not made all of the constituencies happy but i think we're trying our best to achieve exactly what you describe, which is ways to follow in some respects many of the types of

initiatives that ms. quinn has been able to develop on the down easter and apply those in other places and reduce costs and improve performance at the same time. but fundamental to that is our responsibility to engage with these constituencies and with our customers as part of the process and we will continue do that. >> ms. quinn, my final question as to do with a comment that you made that i thought was very startling. you said there have been 18 accidents involving the down easter over the years and not a single one of them had been the fault of the train. we have learned a lot in looking at rail safety about the role that is played by cars or passengers ignoring the grade crossings or just wandering on to the tracks in rural areas. could you talk a little bit more

about what we could do to increase the safety of those passenger -- not passenger, but rather trespasser and car and truck violations that are responsible for the vast majority and in your case, every single one of the accidents. >> yes, and thank you for the question, senator collins. i think that there are some common sense kind of low tech things that can be implemented and the state of good repair funding that's provided will help us all work towards these, first is maintaining the crossings that are all there, the crossings all have different -- how many times do you drive by the road and trees have overgrown and blocking the

signs, so just maintaining the trees, and the crossings that don't have active warning systems, meaning that some only have signs but don't have the gates that come down. fencing is another important opportunity that we could use some moneys to provide fencing so that people don't have access to the right of way. and also requiring channelization. channelization is putting a little island down so that when the arms come down, the car can't go around the arm. i think looking towards higher technology, we did partner with the federal railroad administration on a pilot program which used cameras and speakers to monitor the railroad line and when trespasses were on, the triggered, the cameras came on, and a screen came on in

the police department and the police officers were actually able to speak to the person on the line and tell them to get off. and in a situation, also we're working on a situation where if a person couldn't get off the line, notify the engineer. they havess can lated the use of that with drones, so i think being able to monitor the technology, maybe to do some research, and test some technology looking at drones, to notify the engineer, or notify the authorities when somebody's on the line, and then again, i don't know what's available in terms of apps or technology related to automobiles, when an automobile would be preeveryoned a -- pre-empted when the gate came down, the automobile would be -- there are a lot of instances of people who choose to take their lives using a

train, which is extremely troubling for all involved. so i think that needs to be part of the conversation as well. so i think more research and looking at these things, maintaining what we have, and exploring new technology, that maybe isn't quite as complex or as expensive as ptc to be able to ensure that the rail lines stay safe for the pedestrians, the vehicles, and the crews on board. >> thank you very plumuch. that's very helpful. >> thank you, chairman, collins, thank you for being here today and talking about these important rail safety initiatives, it's a big deal out of montana. a lot of groundo out there. with 95% of the world's consumers outside of the united states, with montana's number one economic driver being agriculture without rail, we don't have an ag economy in montana, it's as simple as that.

it's especially important to see the initiate dives that amtrak placing on the tracks. they came on the empire builder. it runs nearly 700 miles through the high line of montana. it's critically important not only in keeping rural communities connected, but also transporting out of state visi visitors to glacier state park. the haber and shelby stations would be losing their on site ticketing agents. these two towns has been long time supporters of amtrak. as a matter of fact shelby is m one of amtrak's crew bases. i'm concerned about the impacts these decisions might have on amtrak in haber or shelby.

what specifically can amtrak do to continue to meet the needs of rural montanans in these kmup communities and in many cases the elderly who are on fixed incomes, who do not have reliable internet access or the understanding of technology necessary to obtain electronic tickets? >> thank you, senator. i understand your concern about these two stations, you're correct that we did -- we have prioritized removing staff from stations which have less than 40 daily on-offs at each station, each one of those station positions cost roughly $100,000, so it's a significant expense. and our aim is to improve as congress has directed us, improve the economic performance of the national network, obviously focusing on keeping our service and serving the communities.

>> so was 40 kind of the line that you drew then? >> we did, we did. and we're continuing to look -- >> are there any other stations on the amtrak network with fewer onsite ticket agents? >> there are potentially on the state supported portion of the national networks where states are paying for those costs. they have decided to invest. but in general, no, we are destaffing, removing staff from these locations and instead, because of the points you raised, we are using generally two strategies to make sure that we have an adequate presence, one is to hire caretakers, where we hire someone to come and open the station and make sure it's in proper condition and close it so that it's open and in good shape for the period of time that this station is needed. during one period in the day, this station is not needed to be open for extended periods. or to our volunteer host

program, where we work with communities and mayors and we are able to get staff station help through volunteers, we have the surround communities, as ms. quinn mentioned, in maine, the program there. so we are anxious to work and are working with all the communities here to create a good foot print, a good presence to serve folks. and the vast majority of our ticketing is done by phone or online today. >> we have a generation that is not as technically savvy. the grandkids i'm sure could do it fairly quickly, but that's not always a solution for them. >> at this stage, passengers can call, they can make a reservation, they don't have to print out their ticket, and so we're trying to make it as easy as we can for people to show up at a station and we're also

looking at our tickets plat forms and kiosks in stations so customers can come in and print any materials they need right away and also access customer service through the network. >> i want to ask about the long distance service. with the announcement of removing these ticket agents from some of these long distance stations, we have got a lot of folks concerned that this is the first step in eliminating some of these long distance services all together. my staff has heard from numerous groups that their discussions at amtrak on reducing the empire builder to try national service. for many of these communities in montana, there's no other access to the national transportation network, they're a long way from any interstate highways. does amtrak remain committed to

long distance rail? >> senator, we do not plan to institute tri-weekly service on the empire builder. obviously we're operating under the fast track plan that congress authorized to our work. any conversations about the broad future of the network is best placed in our reauthorization context as we approach the next reauthorization that amtrak is operating along all of our routes, we tend to do that and we will consider any future changes collectively between the congress and the administration and amtrak as we look at the network ahead. >> thank you. >> madam chairman, i am out of time, but i do have one more question, but i want to be respectful of others' time. >> go ahead, my constituents, i will just blame you when i'm late meeting them. >> okay, let's go faster. so i wanted to follow up on a

discussion i had with secretary chao that we had recently. amtrak completed a study that had a stop in culverson, montana that would project a cost of $75,000 to amtrak and would not affect the schedule. you know what's going on with fracking and the energy industry. i worked with both the previous administration. does amtrak remain supportive of adding a stop at culverson once station infrastructure is in place? >> we do, sir. >> madam chairman, you can go see your constituents in maine now. >> seriously, if you have an additional question you would like to ask, go right ahead. >> administrator, in your testimony you mentioned chrissy grants and huge increases in

funding for onmnibus. i know ranking member reid touched on the notice for the remaining funds but i would also like to urge you to release the funds so that places like culverson might be able to move forward. >> thank you, senator for that statement and i will assure you that i will follow up to find out where we are in the process of pursuing the remaining crsy funds, as we continue to get out the remain 2 million plus the $68 million for ptc. >> i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. this is a day where there are many conflicting hearings going on, but i can assure you that there is great interest in your

testimony and in the issue of rail safety. the hearing record will remain open until next friday, may 25, 2018, so additional questions may be coming our way in writing. again, my thanks to each and every one of you for your participation. and for helping us gain a better understanding of this important issue. this hearing is now adjourned.

>> considering the nomination of the new commissioner at the consumer products safety commission. a vote in that commission is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. this afternoon. tonight, on the communicators, the second part of our coverage of the congressional hack-a-thon conference. zp

>> i work with leader mccarthy, and our goal is to bring people together on capitol hill and people off the hill in order to sort of improve government, make government more accountable to the people. >> we engineered a sort of a whole new process for creating committee hearing reports, and that's a process that's been in place for many, many, many decades and we developed an app that automates the process of compiling and rendering committee hearing reports. it's a web based app and it's a process that had been taking weeks really to do and was really manual and a lot of data entry and replaced with one that's done with simply a quick of a button. >> that's the communicators, tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. also tonight, secretary of state mike pompeo, outlining the administration's new strategy

for iran. here's a quick look. >> so the path forward, it will now be executed outside of the jcpoa. we will continue to work with allies to ensure stability in the region, block support of terror. we will also ensure that iran has no path to a nuclear weapon, not now, not ever, following our withdrawal from the jpoa, president trump has asked me to achieve these goals on iran. we will aclea clooechieve these along several lines of effort. we will apply financial pressure

on the iranian regime. thanks to our colleagues at the department of treasury, sanctions are going back into full effects and new ones are coming. we imposed sanctions on iran and those who are providing money to hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. thor rain unanimoe ir raanian r that this is just the beginning. the regime will not change it's course from the unproductive path it has chosen to one that rejoins the league of nations. these will indeed end up being the strongest sanctions in history when we are complete. the regime has been fighting all over the middle east for years. after our sanctions come in force, it will be battling to keep its economy alive. iran will be forced to make a

choice. >> we'll have the secretary's full speech from the heritage foundation tonight at 10:00 p.m. and from thelegislative agenda, where we will talk about the midterm elections. this was part of an annual legislative seminar hosted by the law firm bakerhostetler, congressman heath schueler.