{"id":135,"date":"2008-10-21T17:40:22","date_gmt":"2008-10-21T21:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/?p=135"},"modified":"2009-06-30T17:58:52","modified_gmt":"2009-06-30T21:58:52","slug":"slow-train-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/blogs\/slow-train-coming\/135\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Slow Train Coming&#8217;: Rail safety bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On October 16th, President Bush signed into law the rail safety and Amtrak bill.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation provides roughly $13 billion for Amtrak and passenger-rail funding over five years, nearly double current spending levels. The bill also requires that passenger trains have positive train control systems to prevent collisions by 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The bill was authored by <a href=\"http:\/\/lautenberg.senate.gov\/newsroom\/record.cfm?id=304377\">Sen. Frank Lautenberg<\/a> (D-NJ), who said, \u201cWhen we provide rail service, people use it \u2014 as Amtrak\u2019s record ridership shows. Instead of stifling Amtrak like the current Administration did, I look forward to working with the next President to keep investing in America\u2019s passenger rail system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks before President Bush signed the bill into law, the <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB122298615110699903.html?mod=googlenews_wsj\">Wall Street Journal<\/a> took a close look at each candidate\u2019s transportation policy. In 2009, the new President will work with the U.S. Congress on the passage of a six-year bill authorizing federal transportation spending. The federal transportation bill sets both funding targets and federal transportation policy, and is expected to be a turning point for new policies and funding allocations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On October 16th, President Bush signed into law the rail safety and Amtrak bill. The legislation provides roughly $13 billion for Amtrak and passenger-rail funding over five years, nearly double current spending levels. The bill also requires that passenger trains have positive train control systems to prevent collisions by 2015. The bill was authored by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1028,4281],"tags":[2525,5499,2527],"class_list":["post-135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-dig","tag-amtrak","tag-president-george-w-bush","tag-sen-frank-lautenberg"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Dig ~ &#039;Slow Train Coming&#039;: Rail safety bill | Blueprint America | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/blueprintamerica\/blogs\/slow-train-coming\/135\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Dig ~ &#039;Slow Train Coming&#039;: Rail safety bill | Blueprint America | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On October 16th, President Bush signed into law the rail safety and Amtrak bill. 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