BUDGET
FOR RAILROAD CROSSING SAFETY MAY BE UNDER THE KNIFE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By: Ken Leiser
(KRT) -
The White House's proposed federal transportation spending
plan could spell the end of the line for a program aimed
at preventing accidents at the nation's railroad crossings.
Under the plan, the administration would no longer require
states to spend $155 million a year of their federal transportation
aid on rail highway crossings. Missouri's share of the federal
money is about $4 million annually, while Illinois receives
about $8 million.
Instead, the crossing money - distributed until now under the
federal government's Section 130 program - would go to the
states in a form that would give them greater latitude in how
it is used to improve transportation safety.
Not long after Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta unveiled
the transportation spending proposal last month, a railroad
trade association voiced concern about elimination of the Section
130 program.
While not a significant line item in any state highway budget,
industry officials say the rail highway crossing program has
helped in significantly reducing the carnage at the nation's
crossings over the past three decades.
Between 1975 and 2002, the number of collisions at highway
rail grade crossings plunged from 12,126 to 3,066. The number
of crossing deaths was cut by more than half over that span,
too, from 917 to 355.
Rail safety experts also credit the Operation Lifesaver education
program, tougher law enforcement efforts and various engineering
improvements for the safety gains.
"We think that (program) is a very large part of the reason that grade
crossing accidents and fatalities have both been cut sharply over the last
20 years," said Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American
Railroads.
Edward Hamberger, the association's president, said in a May
letter that the group was "strongly opposed" to eliminating
the railroad crossing program and urged state highway officials
to continue their support for it.
“Now is not the time to do away with a tried and true highway safety
program," Hamberger wrote to the state highway group.
The American Association of State and Highway Transportation
Officials wants to keep the rail crossing program alive and
to even increase the funding that flows to its member states,
said Leo Penne, the organization's program director for intermodal
and industry activities.
The current $155 million-a-year level has not kept pace with
inflation since the mid-1980s.
President George W. Bush's administration believes that its
proposal - and that is all it is at this point - would bolster
transportation safety by giving the states more flexibility
in spending their money, said Warren Flatau, a spokesman for
the Federal Railroad Administration.
There will be no net loss of safety funds as a result of the
proposal, federal transportation officials say.
"For our part, the FRA will continue to work in close cooperation with
the state departments of transportation in providing technical guidance, assistance
and recommendations in addressing grade crossing safety concerns," Flatau
said.
But railroad safety advocates fear that rail crossing safety
will lose what little money it gets if the projects are forced
to compete with other needs.
"I would hate to see them bring it in and not earmark it toward railroad
safety because chances are that they would forget about it," said Denny
Moore, a trustee for the nonprofit Angels on Track Foundation. "They would
use it somewhere else."
Moore's teenage son Ryan was killed at a crossing in 1995.
The nonprofit foundation promotes railroad grade crossing safety
in Ohio.
Meanwhile, efforts to draft a new six-year, $247-billion transportation
spending blueprint are moving forward in Congress.
Whether states will be required to continue spending prescribed
amounts on rail crossings is still a topic for debate, although
several sources believe Section 130 will survive. Rep. Jack
Quinn (R-N.Y.) has introduced a bill that not only would preserve
the program but also increase national spending to at least
$300 million.
In Missouri, the state tackles its problem crossings using
its share of the federal money - stuck at about $3.998 million
a year since 1991 - and another $1 million generated by a special
tax on vehicle licensing.
The state and railroads review grade crossings to compile a
list of the most dangerous. The projects are ranked in order
of priority, and about 25 to 35 are funded each year.
The state, for instance, helped improve the Rock Hill Road
crossing over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Webster
Groves, once listed in a federal analysis as one of the 10
most dangerous in the state.
The crossing has a full set of lights and gates. But for some
reason, when no trains were coming, southbound motorists occasionally
were confused and made left turns from Rock Hill onto the tracks
instead of nearby Lockwood Avenue.
"There was uniform recognition by the railroad, by the state and by us
that that was a problem," said Webster Groves Public Works Director Dennis
Wells.
Nothing - signs, striping, lighting - prevented the occasional
wrong turns.
Eighty percent of the $443,143 cost to realign a section of
Rock Hill near the tracks was covered using federal money from
the federal program.
The city and Union Pacific also chipped in for the project,
which was largely completed last summer.
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