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| Administration To Propose Federal Take-over Of Subways And Light-Rail |
| 2009-11-15 |
| You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before. -- Rahm Emanuel In the wake of last summer's deadly Metro crash in Washington, D.C., the Obama administration reportedly plans to propose that subway and light-rail systems across the country fall under federal oversight. The pitch comes as the administration moves to increase regulation over the financial, auto, health care and industrial sectors. The Washington Post reported Sunday that the administration will present its plan to Congress, which would have to approve it, in the coming weeks for the U.S. Department of Transportation to regulate those systems. The regulation would cover every system from New York City to Washington, D.C. to Boston and beyond. The shift is an attempt to reverse a long-standing prohibition against federal regulation on subways -- the prohibition dates back to a time when only a handful of cities had subway systems. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told the Post that federal officials felt hamstrung in the wake of the Metro crash in June. "After the train crash, we were all sitting around here scratching our heads, saying, 'Hey, we've got to do something about this'," LaHood said. "And we discovered that there's not much we could do, because the law wouldn't allow us to do it." |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #11 Most city systems, like San Diego's, are cutting back on service because ridership and revenues are down, not that they ever paid for themselves before. |
| Posted by: rwv 2009-11-15 20:29 |
| #10 I support this. The Chicago system has a long history of lax safety standards and blame-passing when something goes wrong. And lotp is right, the CTA gets tens of millions of dollars from the Feds for capital improvements and even more in operating subsidies. When you take the Fed's money, you accept their oversight for the spending of it. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-11-15 19:32 |
| #9 Don't forget sensitivity and diversity training Garth. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-11-15 19:02 |
| #8 Mass transit is heavily subsidized by the federal government. There isn't a city in the country of any size (or maybe at all) where transit pays for itself with fares or even with fares plus local levies. At the same time transit authorities are almost entirely unregulated except for some regulations such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. There's more than one transit authority that's rather corrupt in its contracting practices, but all of them are burdened with straightjacket union rules. Metro is a particular mess because its board is drawn from DC, MD and VA. That makes it hard for them to get budgets for maintenance etc. when special needs arise. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-11-15 18:56 |
| #7 The feds aren't going to take over the systems; they are going to regulate safety. Thus, for example, the CTA in Chicago will have to meet a federal test for providing inspections of stations, rail, training programs for operators, maintenance yards, rolling stock, etc. Among the problems here is that these regulations will take a long time to write (and rewrite) and Congress will be able to pre-empt them in part or in whole. It would require the feds hiring about another two dozen regulators in DC and several dozen inspectors around the country. It would also probably require transit operators to add to their O&M budgets and that would require raising fares or increasing taxes (probably both). Since transit has a pretty good safety record now, it would likely produce almost no benefits (maybe some disbenefits as it might eliminate some very cost effective safety protocols that systems now use). And the only good it would do would be to make Ray LaHood and a few others feel warm and fuzzy about themselves. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2009-11-15 17:29 |
| #6 Let's be fair here. The Washington Metro did everything it could to stymie its safety board; it refused to provide information, refused to allow inspections, and refused to act on any recommendations or even respond to them. I don't think the Federal Government should oversee New York or Chicago or even LA subway systems, but I can see them overseeing Washington's. It's not as if the city of Washington DC has a responsible government anyhow. |
| Posted by: Eric Jablow 2009-11-15 17:21 |
| #5 well in GA they already take your license for everything from spitting in the wind too overdue library books. |
| Posted by: chris 2009-11-15 16:50 |
| #4 And don't forget banking! |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-11-15 16:04 |
| #3 in the name of Interstate Commerce, they want to take over local systems? Uh huh.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-11-15 15:27 |
| #2 And how about federal control over healthcare too? oh....wait.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2009-11-15 14:59 |
| #1 With over forty-three thousand automobile deaths in 2008, why shouldn't they seek federal control over licensing and enforcement of motor vehicle laws as well. [Yep, don't give them ideas]. Rationale is the same. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-11-15 14:03 |