Washington, DC – At 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, October 8, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will testify at a California State Senate field hearing in Van Nuys examining last month’s deadly collision of a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train in Chatsworth. The September 12 accident killed 25 and injured 135, many of them critically.

Senator Feinstein will testify about actions by Congress to improve rail safety, including passage October 1 of the Rail Safety Improvement Act, which includes a key collision-avoidance provision pushed strongly by Senator Feinstein and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

The legislation specifically calls for installation of Positive Train Control technology on major rail lines by December 31, 2015. Senator Feinstein is pushing the Federal Railroad Administration to require railroads to install this technology sooner on high-risk lines.

Senator Feinstein has also called on Metrolink to add two engineers to its locomotives, to add Automatic Train Stop technology on trains as an interim safety measure and to enforce its ban on cell phone use by train crews.

WHAT: Testimony at California Senate field hearing into the Metrolink collision.

WHO: Senator Dianne Feinstein

WHEN: Wednesday, October 8, 2008
10:00 a.m. Pacific

WHERE: Marvin Braude Constituent Service Center
Rooms 1A & 1B
6262 Van Nuys Boulevard
Van Nuys, CA 91401