HARRISBURG, Pa. — A bill including a limit on freight train lengths and a prohibition on blocking grade crossings for more than five minutes has advanced in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
HB 1191, sponsored by state Rep. Robert Matzie (D-Beaver, Pa.) passed the Consumer Protection, Technology, and Utilities Committee of the House by a 23-3 vote on Tuesday (Dec. 16). The bill has 24 co-sponsors, including 23 Democrats and Republican Louis Schmitt (Altoona, Pa.).
The bill would set a maximum freight train length, require two-person crews on Class I railroads, establish a $10,000 penalty for blocking a crossing for more than five minutes, and establish rules regarding wayside detectors. It also would require a study of state and federal rules regarding the transport of hazardous materials, with a report recommending ways to strengthen those requirements, and require a system for reporting rail transportation of those materials. It also includes a provision allowing union members to “monitor safety practices and operations of a railroad,” and to participate in safety inspections or investigations conducted by the state.
A similar bill sponsored by Matzie in the 2023-24 legislative session, HB 1028, passed the House by a 141-62 vote, but died in committee in the Senate.
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The only way to stop this nonsense is to establish a process where legislators who vote for these bills are penalized by a fine, say $25,000, Those who submit such a bill to their legislature should be fined $50,000. Sadly, will never happen.
State legislatures always forget the card up the sleeves of the Feds: The supremacy clause in the Constitution of the United States, Article VI Clause2.1, in mandating those things managed by the same and those thing to be managed by the states. . States can bluster and make up rules all they wany but in the end it is the Congress, the USDOT and the FRA that decide, not a bunch of part-time nere’ do wells who usually don’t know what they are talking about in the first place that get put in their place by the Feds, in the second place. Maybe they should focus and concentrate more on eliminating fraud and abuse in their own states before they try to take over function of the Feds in the rest of the country…
Another waste of time and resources. Many have tried and many have failed.
Wasting time and resources is what the Pennsylvania legislature does. It’s just a performance, all for show, with no real-life consequences.
Roger that…