Wednesday, May 18, 2005 () The federal government will triple its capacity to inspect the nation’s rail lines thanks to three new advanced track inspection vehicles being launched over the next year and a half, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta announced today.

The announcement came during a visit to Baton Rouge, where the Secretary got a demonstration of one of the new self-propelled inspection vehicles, the T-18, before it departs on its maiden voyage to identify track defects throughout Gulf Coast and Midwestern states. The Secretary noted that with the T-18 and two more inspection vehicles under construction, the Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will soon be able to inspect 100,000 miles of track each year, tripling the agency’s current capacity.

“The T-18 gives us the ability to analyze the integrity of more track more quickly and to provide results that enable railroads to make timely repairs when needed,” Secretary Mineta said. “More track inspections along the nation’s rail lines are good not just for the safety of railroad employees and communities, but good for our economy as well.”

Mineta noted that the new inspection vehicles are a part of the National Rail Safety Action Plan, the Department of Transportation’s aggressive new approach to improving safety throughout the railroad industry. The plan targets the most frequent, highest-risk causes of accidents, focuses federal oversight and inspection resources, and accelerates research into new technologies – like the T-18 – that can vastly improve rail safety.

Highway grade crossing safety – the second leading cause of death associated with railroad operations – will improve as part of the new rail safety plan, Mineta said. The plan calls on all railroad companies to continue to preserve data from their locomotive event recorders – black boxes for trains – and to report all accidents and preserve all evidence that can be used to help local law enforcement investigate crossing accidents.

The Secretary noted that Louisiana alone has seen 15 grade crossing fatalities this year, three times as many than at this point last year. He added that while overall the number of grade crossing fatalities has declined over the years, growing rail and vehicle traffic led to a nationwide increase in the number of crossing fatlities in 2004. “Grade crossing safety is not just a Louisiana concern, it’s a national concern,” Mineta cautioned.

In addition to expanding rail inspection capacity and improving grade crossing safety, the new plan will focus on human error, the largest single factor accounting for 38 percent of all accidents over the last five years. Under the plan, Secretary Mineta, with guidance from some of the nation’s top rail safety advisors, will lead development of a new federal rule to address human factor accidents. He said the Department is also accelerating research into the role fatigue plays in accidents to help railroads set better crew schedules.

The plan also will focus on the safe transport of hazardous materials by rail. In response to a call to action from the FRA, the railroad industry will now provide local emergency responders a ranked listing of the top 25 hazardous materials transported through their community. And by July, Mineta said, the FRA will launch a new pilot program providing emergency responders with real-time information via secure website about the hazardous materials involved in train accidents.

The Department also is investigating new devices to detect if switches are in the correct position, and low-cost circuits to detect broken rails. FRA is also beginning field-tests on new technology that automatically controls train movements and speed, including bringing a train to a stop.

-END-