Obama official once said train-safety cost outweighed benefit

In this May 12, 2015 file photo, emergency personnel work the scene of a deadly train wreck in Philadelphia. Five years ago, federal safety officials proposed requiring video cameras in train cabs, but it didn't happen. That's left a gap as investigators try to unravel last week's fatal Amtrak derailment. less In this May 12, 2015 file photo, emergency personnel work the scene of a deadly train wreck in Philadelphia. Five years ago, federal safety officials proposed requiring video cameras in train cabs, but it ... more Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek, AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek/file Photo: Joseph Kaczmarek, AP Photo/ Joseph Kaczmarek/file Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Obama official once said train-safety cost outweighed benefit 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON -- When a Republican lawmaker in 2011 asked an Obama administration Office of Management and Budget official to name regulations where costs were not justified by benefits, the official had a ready answer.

"There is only one big one that comes to mind," said Cass Sunstein, then administrator of the White House OMB's Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs. "It is called Positive Train Control.''

Even though the regulations for the $13.2 billion rail-safety system were mandated by Congress, "monetizable benefits are lower than the monetizable costs," Sunstein told then Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., at a House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing. "There aren't a lot like that.''

Four years later, those words may come back to haunt the Barack Obama White House and Sunstein, who has since returned to teaching law at Harvard. Safety investigators are still trying to piece together how an Amtrak train went off the track in Philadelphia last week, killing eight. It was a crash that a National Transportation Safety Board member, Robert Sumwalt, said might have been prevented had PTC been fully operational.

Sunstein's pooh-poohing of PTC in 2011 is all the more remarkable because the Obama administration's efforts to push forward regulations in a variety of areas -- notably air pollution and climate change -- against Republican accusations that they would cripple the economy.

Republican lawmakers, the railroad lobby and even conservative columnist George Will were quick to pounce on Sunstein's words, using them in their battle against what they viewed as over-zealous regulation.

`He's plain wrong'

The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., called PTC "the poster child of a regulation that has been mandated that does not have a benefit, or does have a very, very small benefit to cost.''

Edward Hamberger, CEO of the Association of American Railroads, said Sunstein cited PTC as a "stand-out " of "rules where the benefits don't justify the costs.'' He labeled PTC "the most expensive federal safety mandate in railroad history."

Sunstein did not respond to requests for comment.

"I have immense respect for Cass Sunstein; he's brilliant, compassionate and effective," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee. "But on this one, he's plain wrong.''

A White House spokeswoman sidestepped disavowal of Sustein's 2011 comments, but made clear the Office of Management and Budget now considers PTC to be worth the cost.

"The administration fully recognizes the potential safety benefits of PTC, which last week's tragedy has made clear," said OMB spokeswoman Emily Cain.

PTC is a system in which a network of transponders tracks train movement and speed, and sends wireless signals to locomotives that can slow or halt trains traveling at dangerous speeds.

In addition to Philadelphia, the lack of PTC figured in the Metro-North crash in Spuyten Duyvil in the Bronx in 2013, in which four were killed.

The FRA has conducted its own cost-benefit analysis of PTC, concluding in 2010 that the cost of implementing the system along 60,000 miles of track nationwide would be $3.2 billion, but the pegged the total safety benefit at $674 million.

Congress mandated installation of PTC on rail lines nationwide in 2008, the year a Southern California commuter train collided with an oncoming freight engine, killing 25 and injuring 135. The 2008 law mandated that PTC become operational by Dec. 31, 2015.

Since then, the railroad lobby has fought for an extension, arguing installation of PTC is too complicated to meet the year-end deadline. The Senate is now considering a bill that would extend the deadline to 2020, with possible extensions to 2022.

Amtrak has been ahead of other railroads in installing PTC. But use of the system remains spotty.

Blumenthal is the co-author of competing legislation that would stick to the 2015 deadline and grant case-by-case extensions through 2018. He bridled at the idea of federal regulators attempting to put a price tag on the mayhem and disruption that generally accompanies a railroad disaster.

"Tell the family of the Naval Academy midshipman (Justin Zemser, of Queens, N.Y.) or the families of the other seven victims that the loss of life wasn't worth PTC," Blumenthal said.

"It's a malevolent methodology that focuses on the immediate monetary costs that may seem large, but are vastly outweighed by long-terms savings in dollars and lives,'' he said. "It's kind of like garbage in, garbage out."

dain@hearstdc.com