Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150514 : vimarsan

Senate for pass. And over on the house side republicans to approve a bill to ban most abortions. Lawmakers will vote in the house on legislation allowing congress to review any nuclear deal. The senate has passed the bill and the president said he would sign it if there are no major changes added. In philadelphia investigators are still determining what caused amtrak train 188 to derail. The train had been traveling 106 Miles Per Hour and that part of the track had not been equipped with safety programs to limit train speed. Well begin this morning with a debate in washington on amtrak and whether or not the government should be increasing funding for the rail way. We want to get your thoughts on that this morning. If you live in the eastern part of the country dial in. Mountain pacific area and amtrak riders riders remember you can also join the conversation on twitter cspan wj and also spend an email journal. The phone lines are open so you can start dialling in. Well get your thoughts on this debate happening in washington. What to do for amtrak should government funding be increased or not. But first joining us on the phone is julie who is a reporter with the Washington Post who is reporting from the philadelphia area, and julie, lets begin with the latest on the situation there. What are you waiting to find out today . What do you know this morning . Julie absolutely. Whats on everybodys minds today is who is still missing and who are the victims of this crash. We learned many of the names yesterday and well still learn some today and hearing from the families and friends who are devastated. What were also talking about is how could this happen. The system called positive train control is what everybodys focused on. This is a system that an ntsb said yesterday if this system had been on place on these tracks this would not have happened and that is on everyones mind. This train was going 106 Miles Per Hour in a 50 mile an hour zone and much of the country cant make that possible. They were on the scene yesterday morning. Whats the timeline for their investigation and the protocol for this agency . Its a slow process which is actually why i was so surprised yesterday to hear them Say Something so definitive that this system would prevent this. Hes great at telling us were collecting data. Theyre moving slowly and do analysis and come out with a report. I never before heard the day after any sort of disaster this is something that would have stopped it. So this is apparently a very clear cut scene at that level and moving forward there is going to be a lot more analysis in the days and weeks to come. The ntsb puts out a report and who do they report to and what happens . Julie its a federal report and made public. Theres going to be a first report that will come out fairly soon, even today there is going to be another one coming that will tell us more of what they know afternoon and down the line there will be theres going to be a first report that will come out fairly soon, a full report. How does information sharing work . Who was jurisdiction over this scene . Youve got amtrak that travelled across state lines, especially this northeast corridor and this train coming from Union Station in d. C. Headed to new york. So who does this jurisdiction over this and the legality of it . Thats a great question. Were looking at simply investigating this scene its for the most part Philadelphia Police but there have been a lot of state and federal input coming in because this is drawing attention of people all over the country Going Forward. They need to look whether there needs to be policy questions and do something different. Thats a federal question. There is, as you said, lots in the papers today about positive control systems that would have prevented the derailment and allows the train to slow down when approaching an area where the speed limit was much lower, half of what the train was going. Do we know why this part of the track did not have this train system in place . Julie no, i dont think we know about this particular section. Its installed already in much of the northeast corridor which is amtraks busiest especially the station that this train was going, from Union Station to new york. Congress has required amtrak have to this system in place by the end of this year everywhere and this simply its an urban area and somewhat deserted area in the city. Its a lot of rails and not very close to residential and commercial areas and did not have the system yet. Whats the latest from amtrak about their operations and what do you expect to hear from them today in the coming days . Julie they have been focused on getting the people who were on that train where they need to go. They had a pretty personalized effort to get every Single Person get them to some other form of transportation whether they were heading home or they wanted to turn around and go back to d. C. Or whatever their preferences were they were focused on getting them there. What id like to know the stat is the status of people missing. We dont have a precise number of who theyre looking for. Appreciate your time. Julie thank you for having me on. Philadelphia inquirer fast and fatal is their headline. Seven people have died and 200 injured and eight critically and 12 are missing and those numbers could be changing. Well go to linda in connecticut. What do you think about funding for amtrak . Linda i think there should be funding for amtrak. The federal government doesnt want to do it i think the states ought to jump in and each fund amtrak in their states. I want to put in my suggestion. In all the trains across the country, that would override any engineer error in other words if an engineer going too fast this would prevent him from going around the curves or anywhere unsafe. Im surprised it hasnt been put in by now. I know its supposed to be going in by the end of this year. This has been in suggestion for many, many years and it appears now someone is trying to extend this time. I travel on amtrak a lot on Cross Country trains as well as the northeast regional and i think for all of our sakes we need to get this minimal upgrade with the positive train control. I would ask everybody to call their government officials and make this known for all our safety. Thank you. All right, linda. Ron in eagle river wisconsin. What do you think . Ron i think it just shows just how bad our rail system is and we cannot have a passenger system running on the same tracks that our Freight System is. The rest of the world realizes this. And the rest of the world is going between 2 and 300 Miles Per Hour and were trying to figure out a way to slow our trains down to 50. Its ridiculous that the country as rich as we are thinks that the private side is going to move in and provide funding for this. The Railroad Companies will put in just enough to maintain the Freight System. Thats where the money is. Its not passenger because thats not where the market is. What do you think about the idea of private tieing amtrak. There are some on capitol hill who want to do that. What do you think . Ron the worst thing that could be happening. They want that is our problem. There are certain things that we cannot private ties, and i feel that the Transportation System is one of them. While theyre going ahead people dont want to talk about it, the airlines, how much money do they put into the Airline System compare that to the pittance that they put into the rail roads. People wake up. Go travel outside our own country and you can see how second and third rate fourth rate our rail system really is. Okay. Benjamin in burbank, california. Early morning to you. Benjamin benjamin very early. Obviously its a tragedy what happened. But anything government gets involved in is a disaster. No offense what these previous callers are saying but they dont know what theyre talking about. If this was privatized there would be incentive for this not to occur. For the guy before who said we cant, why not . Who says we cant. Anything government gets involved in, its pretty much a disaster. We should start realizing that before its too late. The opinion page of usa today, the opposing views of this, they note sean davis from the federalist saying laura in seattle, its your turn. Give us your take. Laura i agree with the first two callers. I travel amtrak quite a bit down to Southern California which is breathtaking and gorgeous, and i would gladly pay more taxes. I dont think privatizing is the solution. Theres too much greed and we can see that already. Thats a big problem in our country and embarrassing when you travel overseas. I just think that we have to get behind this and do something about it. Its appalling. All right, laura. Couple of callers have mentioned overseas and other countries what their Passenger Rail way systems look like. Senator menendez of new jersey came to the senate floor yesterday and talked about this. Senator menendez we dont know what caused this accident, but we know that we need to invest in 21st century systems and equipment and stop relying on patchwork upgrades to old rusted 19th century rail lines. I travel amtrak virtually every week. I travel the excel which is supposed to be the high speed rail and its like shake rattle and roll. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee i traveled in other countries in the world like japan and they have a bullet train for which you virtually cannot feel anything while youre on the train going in speeds far in excess of what we call high speed rail. Now, there are so many questions we dont know the answer to. Was there human failer . Was there mechanical failer . Infrastructure issues . What we do know is that our rail passengers deserve safe and modern infrastructure. Top democrat was top democrat on the Foreign Relations committee. He stepped down ethics controversy but remains on that committee. As he was saying travels around the world and sees what other countries are doing. We turn to you this morning what should be done about amtrak. Jack, youre an amtrak rider. Give us your thoughts. Jack i am. Good morning cspan. Im a little nervous so bear with me. But, yes, i was talking to an amtrak reservationist several weeks ago and he was commenting to me how the system in the United States and north america is. It used to be and still is the largest rail system in the world right now. But china is going to surpass us. The european countries, they are just decades ahead of our system and its just very sad commentary. It shows to me that we are supposed to be the most wonderful best nation in the whole world and yet we cant get our Transportation System for people who want to ride the rails and amtrak together because our highways are crumbling, our airports are crumbling and we tear down we just cant get ahead of the Transportation System. 95 from maine to miami theres interstate 95, accidents every day. I dont know how many minutes every day and thats not a pleasure to go on the people who have automobiles which i do, travel the interstates. Its just i dont know the solution. But anyway we can do better and we should do better. Judy in new castl, pennsylvania. What do you think . Judy i dont think there should be an increase in funding. I think that the railroaded should be privatized. The government should not be in the business of railroads and i think that privatization would be the answer to everything. Because the government really doesnt do anything well. Its all political whenever the government is involved in anything. All right judy. Bob in texas. Good morning to you, bob. Go ahead. Bob good morning, greta. Ive been watching cspan for hello . Greta were all licening. Go ahead. Bob i was watching cspan when it was not in the senate. That goes way back. I watched it every day. So im going to tell you something what i learned about the rail roads. I used to watch way back there when a fella on the Republican Party bob, they got rid of him. He used to come to the floor every year and talk about funding amtrak and how bad it was and the whole reason was they dont make no money. Well, i learned that not a Railroad System in the world makes money. The one in europe they built the system to benefit the people. Its the peoples money. Government dont have money, its the peoples money and they built a Railroad System for the people. Every year that i can remember, and ive been watching cspan for 30 years, i guess they cut amtrak and cut the money and say the eastern corridor, the one they talked about now, the only one that made money, well, so many planes are falling out of the sky, i decided ill take one more trip to visit my buddy in georgia and then take the amtrak up the east coast and you can ride amtrak from now on of the im in my seventies, im going to ride amtrak from now on. Im not getting on no airplanes because i learned a lot about airplanes from watching cspan. Get to your point because ive got other callers waiting. Bob if i had the responsibility and the power what i would do is i would build the best Railroad System on this planet because thats for people. Greta got your point, bob. Well move on to daryl in mississippi missouri missouri. Daryl one of my dads favorite sayings is, heck of a running a railroad. Its the incompetency to run anything. Originally it was supposed to be profitable by 2002 and continues to suck up finances like any other federal program. It cannot be run by the government. They cant do it. Greta susan is in massachusetts, a former employee of amtrak. Susan, in your opinion, whats the company like and how does it operate . Susan well, i cant speak to the companies today. I was fortunate to be able to respond to letters from the writing public and members of congress and i worked with the carter administration, but he was a member of the Norfolk Southern railroading family so he had it in his blood and was passionate about it. Back then the same daunting and almost impossible odds were working against amtrak that are working against amtrak today. They have no lobbying clout. The Trucking Industry runs over amtrak. They get no funding. They dont own and operate their own tracks so they travel on freight tracks and its impossible to have maintenance integrity when you dont even control the lines. I would agree with all of these callers. The caller from texas and the caller from florida, our national Railroad System is a travesty and the reason privatization probably would not be effective outside because they would eliminate all other routes around the nation. What we need is to get away from long haul trucking which destroys our highways and makes driving anywhere very unpleasant and move towards both intense Passenger Rail upgrades and modernization and expansion to capture the million len yell march at the time. We have a beautiful country and the best way to see is it by train. Greta let me ask you about this part of New York Times this morning. Congressman john mica, republican of florida hes been pushing amtrak and privatization. He has said this susan that may be a fair criticism but thats because i think you know theyre caught between a rock and a hard place. They dont have near lit that may be money they they need to run a first Class National rail service, so i think it opens up opportunities for just sort of a sense of tpaout tilt within the organization. They dont have the backing of the nation and our nations legislature. Money they greta back to this New York Times piece. It says amtrak earned 286 million on the northeast corridor and lost 214 million on Long Distance routes. Should the government increase funding for amtrak . A third line for amtrak riders. This is a had line in the Washington Post. Debate over funding continues on capitol hill. Democrats wanted to double the budget and the white house wanted to zero it out of yesterdays Appropriations Committee this is the infrastructure committee. Bill sherman talks about the funding for amtrak. Heres his thoughts on this. Bill theyre up there looking at it and we dont know why. I heard some politicians already come out and say if we would have spent more money, maybe thats the case but we need to take a serious look at that. The northeast corridor is extremely important to the nation. Thats why we workedget. The Washington Post says greta we were showing you earlier the operating loss that amtrak has continued to have over the years since its inception in 1971. Ron, good morning to you. Go ahead. Ron i just wanted to make your point. You referred to an article i believe it was it was passed in 1970 and thats my point is amtrak and national security. Just like 9 11 and the planes were flying and people had to get away and it was highways or rails. If we have a Natural Disaster we need to be able to move people and First Responders if need be. So i mean were basically spending like a tenth of what we need to be spending on our rail infrastructure. And the people that are talking about how government shouldnt be involved, my personal pen, we opinion, we have one of the best governments in the world. We guarantee free travel and free commerce through the whole world through the military. We have one of the best militaries. Were a nation of over 310 Million People i think the Government Works very well with the freedoms that we over our offer. You get what you pay for. If you dont want to pay f