ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, February 28, 1996           TAG: 9602280101
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press 

RAILROAD CHIEFS GET ROUGH RIDE IN SENATE

While some critics conceded rail safety has improved in recent years, the Federal Railroad Administration took its lumps Tuesday as the Senate looked into the recent series of train collisions.

The hearing comes after passenger rail crashes in Maryland and New Jersey and a series of freight accidents claimed 18 lives in recent weeks. Most spectacular was the fiery collision of an Amtrak train and commuter rail train in Silver Spring, Md., that killed 11.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall said his agency has been recommending safety improvements on the rails for decades. But among the federal agencies that get NTSB recommendations, the railroad administration has among the lowest percentages of response, 74 percent, Hall told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

Hall said his agency began working directly with Amtrak, which has installed many safety improvements on its own, because of the FRA's inaction.

``Unfortunately, this approach covers only those cars used by Amtrak and does not reach other cars in passenger service,'' he said.

Federal Railroad Administrator Jolene Molitoris said her agency has issued a series of emergency orders aimed at slowing down trains leaving stations and assuring that passengers can escape in an emergency.

And Hall conceded that in the last three years under Molitoris the FRA has sharply improved its response to safety recommendations. But many issues remain unresolved, he said.

In particular, Hall repeated a call for automatic systems to stop trains that pass a warning signal, improvements in passenger car construction and so-called ``end-of-train'' emergency braking systems that allow the engineer to automatically engage brakes at both ends of a train.

Molitoris cited a pilot program by Santa Fe and Union Pacific to evaluate three different improvements.

Ronald P. McLaughlin, president of the Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers, said the accidents were caused by a variety of factors, including lack of backup systems; crew fatigue; inadequate inspections, testing and maintenance; brake problems and lax FRA enforcement of safety laws.

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