Railroads, Congress feuded while life-saving technology lagged

May 12th’s fatal Amtrak crash followed seven years of feuding between Congress and the railroad industry over who should bear the cost of technology designed to prevent such accidents -- while the process of installing the safeguards fell disastrously behind schedule. Some members of the Senate were quick to blame the railroads and their lobbyists for foot-dragging on installing technology that has been available for decades, with Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also pointing the finger at the agencies that are supposed to regulate them. “The blame belongs to the regulatory agencies that have succumbed to regulatory capture to the railroads that lobbied relentlessly for delay,” said Sen Blumenthal, whose state has seen a spate of fatal commuter-rail crashes.

But Congress largely refused to provide money for the technology, even as recently as May 13. Railroads have complained repeatedly about the costs, which they said in 2010 would outweigh the benefits 11 to 1, and clashed with the Federal Communications Commission, which rebuffed Amtrak’s request four years ago for free access to the wireless airwaves the systems require. Unexpected technical hurdles arose, including resistance from some local communities to putting up the necessary antennas. One of the biggest technical hurdles, people who follow the issue say, has been access to the wireless spectrum needed to convey the signals among train, track and other equipment. That was an obstacle for Amtrak, which acquired spectrum from two private companies in March. Before then, it had tried to acquire spectrum directly from the FCC’s own inventory in 2011 and 2012, telling the agency that efforts to find suitable airwaves from wireless companies were not going well. But federal law stops the agency from simply handing over any unallocated spectrum, senior FCC officials said. Amtrak argued that a public safety exemption in the law allowed for an exception for the train control technology, but FCC officials decided the exemption applies only to police and fire department communications.