Federal rail inspectors are stretched so thin that they can barely conduct safety checks on even 1 percent of the nation’s tracks, two senators said Sunday — sounding the alarm for more funding in the wake of this month’s deadly Metro-North commuter-train crash.
The Federal Railroad Administration “is woefully underfunded, and that’s something we need to fix,” Sen. Charles Schumer said at a press conference at Grand Central Terminal.
His colleague, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), went to far as to say that the FRA, the nation’s railroad-safety watchdog, has been “AWOL” and “anemic because it has been starved of adequate resources and funding.”
Both senators, who represent thousands of rail riders in the Northeast, called on Congress to meet the Obama administration’s request for $185 million for FRA safety and operations next year, or a boost of $15 million more than last year.
The current budget plan calls for a $6 million increase.
The two senators said the extra money is needed to help fund another 45 inspectors to increase the number of railroad spot-checks and the amount of track examined.
Schumer said extra funding is critical “if we want to prevent tragic accidents like the one we just saw in New York.”