Lawmakers focus on railroad safety

• By MARK BALLARD
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Jun 15, 2009

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The Legislature today is poised to revisit railroad safety.

Members are scheduled to vote this afternoon on legislation that would fund Louisiana’s effort to augment the ranks of federal rail inspectors.

Louisiana Public Service Commission member Foster Campbell, of Bossier Parish, said the idea is to address Louisiana’s top 10 ranking for derailments and fatal crashes at railroad crossings.

Nine people have died and 25 others were injured in the 61 crashes at railroad crossings between August 2008 and February, said Michael Calhoun, an official with the Federal Railroad Administration.

The FRA’s report, which was quoted by proponents of House Bill 835, counts only crashes in which damage to train equipment exceeded required reporting levels. It does not include the dozens of derailments along tracks that often pass through populated areas, as well as those near industrial facilities that are caused by defective equipment and track, Campbell said.

The Federal Railroad Administration in 1970 created a system in which states could augment the oversight by federal inspectors. Thirty states employ 160 inspectors who look for defects and violations of the safety protocols of about 700 railroads nationwide, according to the FRA.

Campbell said the FRA would train and equip six state PSC employees to serve as inspectors. Paying those workers, maintaining an office and the other costs would be about $400,000 a year, which the railroads would pay in the form of a fee, he said.

Nearby states such as Alabama, Mississippi and Texas participate in the FRA program, as do Illinois, Pennsylvania and other states with concentrated rail systems comparable to Louisiana’s, said state Rep. Robert A. Johnson, D-Marksville, who is sponsoring HB835.
Legislators last year passed a bill, signed into law by Gov. Bobby Jindal, assigning the PSC the duty of handling the program and hiring the six inspectors to work with the FRA.

A few of the five elected commissioners initially were not enthusiastic about taking on the new duty. The commissioners heard in public meetings from farmers and local officials, who are responsible for most of the property crossed by railroads, complaining that current oversight is ineffective and that PSC oversight is welcomed.

After much debate, the PSC drafted rules that defined how the state would participate with the FRA program and, following the system used in regulating power companies, established a fee by which the industry would help fund its own regulation.

But Louisiana Railroads, a trade association representing the industry, sued, claiming the PSC had no authority to levy fees without the expressed permission of the Louisiana Legislature. A state district court agreed with the railroads, and the case was appealed.

Rep. Johnson, a lawyer, countered that the authority was granted in the law passed last year. In their debates during the 2008 session, lawmakers discussed specifics, such as how many inspectors would be hired and how they would be paid. Johnson said the Legislature clearly intended to allow the PSC to collect a fee to fund its participation in the FRA program.

No matter, Johnson said, this year’s HB835 was drafted using such direct language that it leaves little open to interpretation. The legislation would trump the ongoing court appeal, he said.