Patty Murray

The management team now has a strategic vision and has started to look at long-term planning.

This could revitalize a domestic industry for manufacturing rail equipment and really help us focus on manufacturing jobs here in the country.

That's a lot of money, especially when we're asking them to also do positive train control.

Well, as Senator Bond mentioned, we're talking about billions of dollars. Do you have a plan for how to get there?

We all need to have a concrete plan, not just for an appropriation here or there, but for how we're going to do this, long into the future.

Okay. Well, in order to decide which projects you're going to fund through this program, you're going to have to rely on forecasts of ridership levels and revenues and public benefits, projects costs.

Railroads are supposed to deploy the positive train controls (PTC) by 2015.

In less than 2 years, the Federal Government has now committed $10.5 billion to intercity and high-speed rail.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), all Amtrak stations are supposed to be accessible by July 26 this year.

Well, you've requested a billion dollars. Can you tell us how much you expect to use for intercity projects and how much for high-speed rail corridors?

Well, they have structured their fleet plan so that it could support a domestic industry for manufacturing rail equipment by spreading the orders over a 30-year period.

This subcommittee is a strong supporter of infrastructure spending. That's what we do, and we believe in it.

It's about people's civil rights. And it's not going to get any easier in the next 5 years, so I'm going to continue to press you on this.

I know families in my home State of Washington deeply value our Amtrak service.

This subcommittee has seen too many budget requests from previous administrations that would have guaranteed the bankruptcy of Amtrak.

Efficient rail transportation in America ties our community together. It creates jobs and boosts the economy and reduces the prices of goods being shipped.

Well, Mr. Chairman, this is a serious problem.

We lost seven workers, and it's just had a huge impact.

I want you to know this is something I intend to pursue.

We are now re-evaluating whether--when we have a national program--we should allow States to opt out of it, because it would no longer be a national program.

I mean, it seems we have to fix that.

Well, is there any disincentive for operators to file?

I think we need to understand that. We need to know if there's something we can do in the law to make sure that inspectors get in.

I want to express my sincere sympathy to all of the families that are here in this room, and, really, thousands across the country.

OK. I appreciate that.