During a House Transportation Committee hearing before the Congressional recess, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy about a bill to improve rail safety.
00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary. You began your speech by talking about how important it is to have safety in the Department of Transportation. I completely agree. I'm the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Railroads and Pipes and Hazardous Materials.
00:19I want to talk to you about rail safety. As you know, Vice President Vance supported a rail safety bill. The President has supported rail safety, but it's been over two years since the Palestine incident, and we don't have a rail safety bill.
00:35I wonder what your position is, how you're going to push this forward, what you see should be in that rail safety bill.
00:42Well, I have enough respect. That's in the purview of the Congress, but I do think that should be grappled with, debated, and how do we drive safety? East Palestine was horrific for those who live there and nearby there.
00:56Again, I would join your heartfelt effort to make our rail system safer.
01:02I appreciate that. One of the aspects of rail safety is that the Class 1 railroads have requested a safety waiver from you, so this is your purview that would allow them to reduce visual track inspections from twice a week to twice a month.
01:20Ranking member Larson and I wrote you about this, suggesting this would not be a good idea, but the trains claim that this would allow them to use ATI, automated track inspection.
01:33Is there anything that's keeping them from using that now, and can you comment on where that waiver is?
01:39Yes, we're thinking through that now, and again, I look at automated track inspection and driving safety and what can be cleaned from this technology versus the human eye.
01:52I think there's potentially a real differential.
01:54I am concerned about the employment side within the rail industry as well, but I think there's a lot of technology, whether we're seeing cracks in tracks or we're seeing overheated bearings
02:06or we're seeing issues on wheels, I think these cameras and technology can advance us light years in driving the safety and preventing early some of these derailments that are, as we know, are catastrophic.
02:22Well, I think technology is helpful, too, but we've heard testimony that 17 of 23 key track defects can't be seen by this technology.
02:32They require the human eye, so I'd hate to see us trade that expertise for something that's kind of tricky.
02:40And I think that would be a great conversation that we could have together.
02:43Let's look at what we're seeing in data, what are you seeing, and I think it's just right, we want to get this right.
02:50And that's what my focus is, because in the end, all of us care about safety, and what are we doing to drive that?
02:55Well, thank you, and thank you for your commitment to upholding the two-man crew that you mentioned in your confirmation hearing.
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