The horrific Amtrak train wreck last night in Philadelphia has resulted in 7 deaths so far and more than 200 injured, many critically, and has shut down the busy Philadelphia to New York route while recovery and rescue efforts continue. The cause of the derailment is under investigation, but it will rightfully raise new calls for infrastructure funding from Congress. With thousands of bridges in need of repair, with our ports and electric grid increasingly out of date, and now with derailment of passenger trains and trains carrying toxic chemicals, it's well past time for a major infrastructure upgrade, like the one called for by the Obama Administration in the 2009 stimulus package, but which was watered down by Republicans eager to foil the new President.
Ironically, if not criminally, the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee has just proposed a $300 million cut in Amtrak funding for fiscal 2016, within the overall funding bill for transportation projects. Not just bad timing, bad policy, and too late for the people who lost their lives last night.
(photo: B. Woolston, Reuters)
