Bob Wise: “quite rightly, today the subject has been Amtrak, but we need to be talking in this Congress about rail safety.…”

“quite rightly, today the subject has been Amtrak, but we need to be talking in this Congress about rail safety. Yesterday, two Norfolk Southern trains collided head on in southern West Virginia. Again today a CSX train hit a tractor trailer at a grade crossing. Great tragedy was avoided because the tractor trailer had just unloaded an explosive mixture. Yes, it is true that the Federal railroad agency is working with CSX, is working with Union Pacific, in a concerted effort to improve safety practices, but these are reactions. We need to be proactive. So, Mr. Speaker, we need to have a coordinated approach, the kind of coordinated approach that is in the rail safety legislation that I have introduced and we are seeking to get a hearing on and to get debated on this floor; rail safety legislation that requires positive train separation devices, requires fatigue management plans, requires greater oversight of safety. And, yes, Mr. Speaker, on Monday we will be unveiling Operation Respond, which is a partial answer to some of the problems we have seen and which for the first time in our State will have emergency responders able to find out immediately upon arriving on the scene what hazardous materials are involved.”