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     The Administration will release its proposed FY06 budget on Monday, February 7. In it there will be an item proposing to give $360 million for Northeast Corridor maintenance and commuter trains operated by Amtrak. Such a proposal, if actually enacted by Congress, would kill off Amtrak, quickly sending the corporation into bankruptcy.

     Immediately, several influential federal legislators spoke out against the proposal. There will undoubtedly be a large fight in Congress over the issue, and the Bush proposal will be difficult to pass.

     It is not the first time that Amtrak has been faced with a threat to zero out its funding. This happened in earlier anti-rail administrations, but failed when Congress voted Amtrak funding to keep it running.

     Individual rail advocates, besides contacting their legislators with messages of support for Amtrak, can join the National Association of Railroad Passengers, the only nationwide organization fully devoted to advocating Amtrak support.

     In the wake of the disastrous Metrolink commuter train-freight rain-SUV wreck in Glendale CA January 26, increased discussion of railroad safety and susceptibility to terrorism has arisen.

     Much of the discussion, however, seems to highlight the fuzzy thinking of public officials about railroads. 

     The Glendale wreck was not a terrorist act, but quickly the thrust of public thinking turned to terrorism. Did it turn thus because officials and others who worry about rail safety find it easy to blame outside elements--e.g., terrorists--for their fears rather than confront the real sources of danger in our own society and our own infrastructure?

     Since 9/11/2001 no terrorist has struck at US railroads. However, in that same time period there have been many train accidents, most of them involving highway vehicles, primarily at crossings. If a terrorist planned to strike out at a rail line, he would probably not do it at a grade crossing; he would find a more hidden and devious method. There indeed is probably no way to prevent a rail terrorist act. But there are ways to prevent or greatly reduce train accidents at street and highway crossings. Unfortunately, most of the ways are expensive enough that officials do not want to address them.

     Do we do enough to keep deranged or drugged drivers off our roads? The man who initiated the Glendale wreck was said to have a record of drug use and had been in trouble with the law. Why do we not confiscate the vehicles and driver's licenses of such individuals? Are they not more dangerous than terrorists? Maybe harsher penalties are needed for drivers who violate grade crossing rules (and live to continue driving). If license and vehicle confiscation were the punishments for grade crossing carelessness, perhaps crossing safety would improve.

     Fuzzy-thinking officials look in the wrong directions for solutions to potential problems. Another example is the tendency of rail officials to worry about photography of trains and rail infrastructure. Doesn't it seem unlikely that a person with a camera around train stations is a terrorist? Yet some rail agencies have been treating totally non-terrorist tourists and railfans as enemies, forbidding photography and even trying to confiscate their cameras. Are these officials trying to fool themselves that they are doing something positive about potential terrorism when they are actually alienating their own best customers and supporters and wasting energy that could be used on more effective activities. 

     If railroad police who waste their time harassing innocent citizens (to bolster their self-importance?) were fired and their salary money directed toward grade crossing improvements, some small positive impacts on safety might be made.

     Another safety topic highlighted by the Glendale wreck is the use of cab cars in push-pull train operation. It's hard to claim that a pushing train is just as safet in a collision as a pulling train. One can quote statistics about their safety, but then the stats are good because trains are inherently safer than any other transportation modes. The explanation given is that railroads use push-pull "because it's easier." The real reason is because it's cheaper. Why don't we have these concerned public officials use their political clout to increase funding for commuter lines that use push-pull so that all trains could be pulling? Or even better, increase funding to prevent drivers from doing nutty things around railroad tracks. 

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