Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008

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Mrs. NAPOLITANO. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank Chairman Oberstar for yielding the time. I am rising in support, in very strong support of the manager's amendment which includes some very important provisions especially the one regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and the raising of the stations' platforms. The Los Angeles Metrolink and many other commuter railroads have fully complied with ADA rules by putting ramps and lifts in all of their stations so the disabled community can safely and easily board the trains.

DOT has proposed a rule that would require all railroad stations to fully raise their platforms. It would be a very great cost to all the different railroads that service our people and then most passenger rail stations are serviced by multiple railroad companies with different train settings. Raising the platform will create major vertical and horizontal gaps between the trains and the platforms, making it harder for the disabled community to safely and efficiently enter and exit trains.

The manager's amendment requires Amtrak to study how raising station platforms will affect the safe and efficient boarding of trains for all passengers.

I fully support the manager's amendment and thank Mr. Oberstar, Ms. Brown, Ranking Members Mica and Shuster for their work on the reauthorization of the bill which helps provide many needed improvements in the sadly lacking rail transportation, and hopefully will provide enticement to people leaving their cars at home, saving gasoline, arrive rested and avoid the traffic jams, creates for us in California a desperately needed program where we have three of the top five busiest rail corridors in the U.S., the Pacific Surfliner, the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin Corridors, alleviating the choke points and being able to help us look at the San Diego to Los Angeles San Francisco high-speed rail. It will help Metrolink, and I strongly support the passage of the manager's amendment in the bill.

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