At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing in June, Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) questioned Clarence Anthony about updating rail networks to accommodate for new weather phenomena.
00:00Senator Kim, you're recognized for questions.
00:03Thank you, Chair.
00:04Mr. Anthony, I just want to pick off where my colleague left off.
00:08You talked about some of the problems that come with delays and other challenges,
00:11workers not being able to get to work.
00:13We have a lot of problems with that in New Jersey, a lot of difficulties on that front.
00:17And I think just in general with the Northeast Corridor, I just wanted to ask you,
00:21do you agree that the Northeast Corridor is critical for our nation's economic strength and security?
00:27Yes.
00:27Now, I guess I'd just like to think through what are the types of steps that we need to do to be able to further ensure that?
00:37And one of the things that we tried to do here in Congress was through the bipartisan infrastructure law.
00:43And I guess I just want to ask you to share how that law supported much-needed updates to the Northeast Corridor
00:48and why those investments are crucial for our rail system.
00:51Well, for local communities to be able to have a rail stop in their community, it means a lot.
00:59It means more jobs, more innovation, more money in the communities for investment and reinvestment.
01:09Small businesses prosper because of a hub being created and a stop in that community.
01:16But it also means, in some ways, that they need to be more engaged in the planning and the stop and the rail stop in their communities.
01:32And that's what we're fighting for as local leaders is just making sure that we do recognize that it's important,
01:38but it also has to be planned and developed within our community, and we need that support.
01:45And have it thought through with a sense of strategy, right?
01:49Yes.
01:49A sense of coordination and purpose.
01:52Do you feel like the bipartisan infrastructure law was successful in trying to start that process for another generation of changes?
01:59We do think that, and we've been very supportive with USDOT to make sure that it's implemented effectively in communities.
02:09But clearly not, you know, clearly the work is not done, though, right?
02:12Like, there's more that we need to continue on to.
02:14And in particular, I just wanted to ask, you know, we have tried to engage in advanced appropriations
02:19through the bipartisan infrastructure law for entities like Amtrak to supercharge our capital investments like state of good repairs.
02:28Are those the types of things that you are hoping that we are continuing forward to be able to help support some of these advancements?
02:34Yes, we need continued funding.
02:36When I think through the challenges that we face, for instance, in New Jersey, and we were entering into hurricane season,
02:43we've had a lot of disruptions in the past when it comes to transit and whatnot due to the storms.
02:48And, you know, across this country, we have a lot of different issues that are out there.
02:51How important is it for us to think through climate resilience when it comes to what comes next for a strong and effective rail system, Mr. Anthony?
03:01I think sustainability, climate resistance has to be considered as a part of any plan for rail investment and rail development.
03:14And our local communities are working with the rail industry to be able to bring those types of issues into the confrontation.
03:24Mr. Jeffries, do you agree with that?
03:26I mean, when we're trying to think through how to be able to move this forward,
03:29I'm trying to think through how are we prioritizing the need for that resilience,
03:33especially when we worry about disasters and other types of means.
03:36Sure.
03:37From the freight perspective, you know, one of the things we're most proud of is following a hurricane, for example.
03:41We're often the first mode that's back up and running.
03:44But we're investing across the network in particularly sensitive areas.
03:48Think about, you know, Louisiana basin, for example, to raise tracks, literally increase the amount of ballast.
03:55So tracks are higher off the ground.
03:56So when we do experience flooding events, we're allowed to continue to provide service to customers and communities in which we operate.
04:03And that's a long-term project.
04:05When you're thinking about the NEC, New York in particular,
04:08obviously those infrastructure challenges are a completely different animal.
04:12But as you make these generational investments to replace Portal Bridge, for example, to build in the new tunnels,
04:18that's got to be a consideration, right?
04:20You've got to have a more robust product out there that allows the passenger side to continue to operate in rough conditions
04:28or get back online more quickly and have that infrastructure hardened, especially the electronic side of it all,
04:34so that it doesn't get knocked out for an extended period of time.
04:37Yeah.
04:37I mean, that has been part of what we were thinking about with the Gateway Project and others,
04:41trying to make sure this is resilient, given what we said about the critical nature.
04:45Mr. Jeffries, are there other types, besides raising the rails and others,
04:49are there other types of resilient steps you think we need to be prioritizing as we're thinking about it here in the Senate?
04:54I mean, I think about it as operational resilience and infrastructure resilience.
04:58So operationally, you know, the better information we have as far as weather events, et cetera,
05:04the better we can plan and preposition assets.
05:06We're certainly not the airline industry.
05:08It takes more than one night to reposition things.
05:10But we can take steps in advance, get, you know, our assets out of harm's way so that we can bring them back in shortly after.
05:16On the investment side, you know, it is really about, I think, partnering with communities to ensure what their needs are
05:25and identifying those high-impact projects and making sure you reduce the amount of time
05:32or the amount of negative impact so that we can continue to serve communities.
05:35Because it's immediately during and after major weather events that communities are in the most need,
05:41and often the rail is the best way to get in there, so we want to make sure we can continue to do that.
