Immediately after a deadly derailment on the railroad’s Northeast corridor, Senator Edward Markey said that investment in railways should be increased. He said that Republicans are playing ‘a dangerous game of railway Russian roulette’. Markey and Connecticut US Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that investments in the nation’s railway infrastructure need to be increased.

They said that a safety technology called positive train control is needed to be implemented as it will help automatically decelerate or stop trains so as to prevent accidents like the one that occurred outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

According to Markey, “We’ve just been given a warning here. The more the budget is cut, the more Amtrak has to make decisions as to which part of the system they are able to ensure has PTC”.

On Wednesday, the Appropriations Committee voted in favor of party lines and supported a Republican bill, under which, Amtrak’s budget would be slashed by $251 million for the upcoming year. Doing this, it rejected Democratic efforts to increase spending on the passenger railroad.

According to the senators, they would deal with any measure with an intention to decrease the railroad’s funding on the Senate floor. Markey said that this way, they will save lives. According to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman, positive train control was installed on the tracks where the accident took place, but it was not turned on as there was need of further testing.

According to officials, speed of the train accelerated from 70 mph to over 100 mph before it derailed with a 50 mph speed limit outside Philadelphia. The accident killed eight people and injured nearly 200. Reason behind the train’s acceleration is yet unclear.

According to National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt, with installation of such a system in this section of track, this accident would have not prevented.